Child of Time
by x-Avarice-x
Summary: A madman in a blue box. A girl lost within her own timeline, traveling the stars. Amy's going to kill him when she finds out.
1. Prologue

This is my first fic writing for the 11th Doctor, so here's to hoping it's good. I love reviews, by the way. I'm also considering a sequel, depending on how much everyone enjoys this one.

This is set some time after Season 5, when Amy and Rory return to Earth to live normally and start a family.

Author Note: I changed the summary for this particular story. I should have changed it a long time ago, but I finally got around to it, hooray! Please don't be confused; I changed nothing else but the summary.

**Disclaimer****:** As much as I'd love to lock Simm!Master up in my basement and do very bad things to him for the rest of forever, I don't own Doctor Who. However, I am married to the Master in my mind.

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I spent all my life looking for my big, blue box.

Mum and Dad always told me stories about it, when I was a little kid. There's a man, they said, a wonderful man who can do absolutely anything in the world you can think of. He can confuse you with just a single sentence (but only if you listen hard enough, Dad told me once). He can be the most magnificent friend in the whole world, taking you anywhere you want to go, just because he wants to make you happy. He can topple mountains, destroy evil creatures, and save the lives of people who are in danger, people he doesn't even know. He travels more than anyone you could ever meet and has been to places you've never even heard of, rescuing whole planets from fiery destruction. He can eat more Jammie Dodgers than anyone else in a single sitting. He loves bow ties, suspenders and red fezzes. And he can travel in space and time, in a big, blue box.

It's called a TARDIS, Mum says. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. Dad says it's a funny name, but I think it sounds cool. Mum drew me a picture once. I keep it on my wall in my room, above my side table. It's been there for years and I've never moved it. It's colored in too. She explained to me once that it was just a disguise, the Police Public Call Box thing. From the 1950s. I've never really seen a proper working one in person before, mostly because they're all gone now and no one remembers them much. I saw one in a museum once, only it was one of the skinny, tall red ones. I didn't like it. Blue is a much better color.

I've drawn a lot of pictures of it too. I guess I've grown up sort of believing that he's real, even though he's just a bedtime story. I'm 14 now, just turned yesterday. My friends are always asking me why I stare out the window at school so much. I wish I could tell them that I'm waiting for my big, blue box, but I can't exactly do that, now can I? I think they'd laugh at me; all the aliens we run into nowadays aren't nice ones anyway.

Mum's always mad that I took Dad's accent over hers. Scottish accents are fun to listen to, but not as fun to speak, for me anyway. Dad's happy that I took his accent, mostly because I look like Mum's clone, flaming red hair and all. Dad says I got her brain too. I've seen pictures of her from when she was little and I have to say we really do look alike. Mum's always been kind of graceful, but I didn't get that either. I got Dad's sort of bumbling nature. Which is fine with me, I like how I am. Most people my age don't, but I'm glad. I mean, I could have turned out a lot worse, right?

Mum and Dad finally decided to stop trying to have another baby. Mum really wants a son, but I know they'd be happy with whatever they got. After the third miscarriage when I was seven, they hadn't tried for a long time. I'm their little miracle, they said. I'd love to have a baby brother or sister, but the age gap would be huge now. I wouldn't mind, though. I keep saying that we should adopt, but Mum doesn't want to. Still, I might be able to convince them someday.

Sometimes I hear Mum and Dad talking, when they think I'm not listening, or when I'm in the next room. They talk in quiet, hushed tones. I listen close, because I know what they're talking about. Mum talks about him all the time. She wishes he'd visit. Dad doesn't say anything, but I know he agrees with her. I'd agree with her too, if he was real. Sometimes, I wonder if my parents are crazy. They talk about him like he's alive, a real person. But that can't be. Can it?

My name is Felicity Annabelle Williams. I spent all my life looking for my big, blue box.

But never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would actually find it.

And now, I wish I never had.


	2. Chapter 1

It all started on that day in late September. It was cold outside and Mum finally dug my winter coat out of the woodwork. We discovered it didn't really fit me anymore. Oh well. We'll get a new one tomorrow, she said.

But tomorrow never came. Not for me.

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"Bye Mum!" Felicity grabbed her book bag and hoisted it onto her shoulder, making a noise of discomfort upon remembering just how heavy the darn thing was. She was in special advanced classes in school, for those children who were especially bright. She enjoyed them (except Math) but they were always heavier on homework than normal classes. She ran her hands beneath her hair to free it from the bag's grasp, flinging red fire every which way. The bus driver honked impatiently.

"Bye Liss!" Amy called from the other room, sipping her coffee. "Have a good day at school!" That had been her daughter's nickname since she was little, but only she and Rory called her that. Everyone else just called her Felicity.

Rory was already gone to work. He was a proper doctor now, degree and all. She was so proud of him. He had been working in the same hospital since Felicity had been born and he had almost been the one to deliver her. The two of them had aged gracefully over the years, something that Amy was quite thankful for, more for herself than for her husband. She had the day off from work, thank the Lord, and she was busying herself with household chores and the like. The house did not clean itself, though she really wished it would.

Amy did a few loads of laundry, mentally cursing at herself because she forgot to pick up bleach at the store again. She would tell Rory and make him do it. The dishes were clean, house vacuumed, glass spotless. She checked the clock. It was only 11:27 am. Felicity had only been gone for four hours and she'd gotten everything done. It was so much easier to clean the house when she was the only one in it.

Amy heard her cell phone ring from the bedroom. She ran from the kitchen to grab it, noticing that it was none other than her daughter. She hit the answer button and lifted the contraption to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hi Mom," Felicity's voice was quiet, but not quite right.

"Felicity, what are you doing calling me from school? You're going to get in trouble! Do I have to take your phone away from you?"

"No Mum, I'm sorry, I just..." She trailed off. "I thought I felt sick, but I'm okay now."

Amy's voice took on a tone of worry. "Are you sure you're alright? Your voice sounds different. Do you have an upset stomach? I can come get you if you don't feel well."

"No, I'm fine. Mr. Richards just announced an English test, I guess I got nervous," she said.

"Well alright, just get back to class, okay? Don't let your teachers see you talking on your phone," Amy ran her hands over the shelf next to Rory's side of the bed. She inspected her fingers and frowned in disapproval. _"I swore I dusted this shelf,"_ she thought.

"Okay, thanks Mum. I love you."

"I love you too, Liss. See you when you get home."

"Bye."

"Bye." Amy heard the click on Felicity's end and set the phone back where it was.

She showered and dressed, expecting Rory home at about 12:15 for lunch as always. She heard his truck pull into the drive way at precisely the exact time, just as she was slipping on her socks, and she smiled. They enjoyed their lunches together. It was one of the things that kept their marriage strong.

There was a whirr, soft and almost distant, except that it was getting louder, more harsh. The sound of the universe. She had not heard that sound in over nineteen years. "Coming from the backyard..." She bolted for the porch door.

The TARDIS was materializing next to her rose bushes. She could not believe her eyes and a smile of pure joy spread across her face. Amy ran down the porch steps by twos, not caring if her socks were stained green from the grass. "Doctor!" She was halfway across the lawn when the door opened.

The Doctor stepped out. He looked the same, still her Doctor, but she stopped in her tracks. "Doctor?"

His face was gaunt, shallow. There were dark circles beneath his eyes and his hair was in more directions than she had ever seen it. He still wore his bow tie and his suspenders, though she paid them no mind. He was looking at her seriously, more seriously than she wanted to see. Because when he was this serious, something was wrong.

"Doctor? Doctor, what is it?"

He simply stood there, watching her. Breathing. Thinking. He couldn't possibly convey everything that he wanted to tell her. She would not listen after what he had to say.

"I'm... I'm sorry," he said finally, watching her face change from curiosity to confusion, then to amusement.

"Sorry for not coming back to visit, yeah you better be!" She smiled and closed the gap between them, noting that the expression on his face never changed. She almost gave him a hug, then stopped. "Doctor, is something wrong?"

"Yes," he answered, trying his best not to fiddle with the clip of his suspenders in anxiety.

"What is it? What's wrong?" She heard the porch door open behind her, Rory shouting his greetings to their long lost friend.

The Doctor paused. "It's Felicity." Amy's eyes widened. "I'm sorry."


	3. Chapter 2

"There's no way he likes you, he only likes girls with blond hair!" Trisha said, as matter-of-factly as she could.

"Well I'm the exception!" Christine answered back with a smug grin. Felicity watched the exchange between her two best friends. They were always competing with one another. Grades, gym class, boys, it didn't matter the subject. The red head thought it was all a bit silly, really. Nevertheless, she put up with them.

"Neither of you have blond hair," Felicity stated bluntly. "Don't get so worked up."

"That's easy for you to say, miss ginger!" Trisha said, accenting each syllable of the last word. "Not everyone can have beautiful locks like you!"

"I didn't say that," Felicity responded, a bit perturbed.

"It's okay Felicity," Christine said with a smile, leaning forward from across the aisle, her own black hair splayed against the seat in front of her. "You know we're both just jealous." Felicity tucked her hair behind her ear subconsciously. Christine was a shy person until you got to know her well, then she opened up and was just as bad as Trisha. She adjusted the bag on her back.

"You should ask him to the dance!" Trisha said, quarrel long forgotten. She shifted in her seat and her annoyingly huge purse pushed against Felicity's shoulder.

"Don't be daft, boys ask girls to the dance, not the other way around!" Christine insisted, holding on to the seat in front of her as the bus turned a sharp corner.

"Maybe he doesn't even know you like him," Felicity offered, half listening. She always took the window seat on their bus. Christine and Trisha didn't mind though; they always sat across the aisle from each other and talked up storms.

"Maybe," Christine said thoughtfully, as the bus traveled almost too quickly over a bump in the road.

"The worst he can do is say no, right?" Trisha asked, putting her brown hair in a ponytail as she spoke. "I mean really, that's the worst. Or maybe he already has a date to the dance, but he'll ask you next time."

"I guess so," Christine admitted. "Maybe I will ask him!"

"Good!" Trisha turned and fell back into her seat. "If you do, we don't have to listen to you gripe about it every three seconds!"

"I don't gripe!" she gasped.

"Oh you SO gripe!"

Felicity finally tuned them out completely. They were a few minutes away from school and another boring day. The sky looked like it was going to rain. Again. It was always raining. It made her kind of depressed sometimes. She liked being outside in the sun, when there was one to be out in. Mum did too, that's when they always went swimming with Dad. He always got sunburned though.

Felicity was aware that she was a very lucky person. Unlike a lot of kids she knew, her parents were still married. They also still loved each other very much and they shared that love with her. She knew that a lot of girls her age hated their parents, but she loved both of hers. She was lucky. But perhaps not lucky enough, she thought. No blue box yet.

"Hey space cadet!" Trisha poked Felicity in the arm.

"Ow! What'd you do that for?" she squeaked.

"Quit staring out the window, the bus stopped already! Time to get off!" Christine was already off the bus, waiting outside for them. Felicity jumped up and followed Trisha to the building, mentally unprepared for another day of boring lectures.

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"So, as you can see class, the answer to this particular question is, in fact, two sevenths x squared plus fourteen."

Felicity sighed inaudibly. Math class was her least favorite place to be and one of the first on her schedule. Christine had this class with her, but she was just as bad at math as Felicity was. Only Trisha was any good at it, and even that had its limits. Felicity much preferred science classes, or even history. Both subjects fed her secret hope and she devoured anything and everything having to do with them. The chemistry teacher, Mr. Dunsworth, was very interested in putting Felicity on the competition team starting next year. She was fine with the idea; chemistry was fun, though not as fun as physics or biology. Or computers. She quietly tapped her pencil on her desk out of boredom. Her algebra teacher, Mrs. Handel, was busily writing out problems on the board that were unfortunately due tomorrow. Felicity grudgingly wrote them in her assignment book, next to the date and a picture of the TARDIS that she'd doodled two days ago, and sighed.

Felicity wished it wasn't so cold and rainy outside. She had a meeting with her language tutor after school in the library and she was supposed to walk home if Mum wasn't there to get her when she got out. She took sneak glimpses out the window to her left when Mrs. Handel turned her back. She never really was one for paying attention in class. That was probably why it took her longer to finish her homework at night.

Something caught her eye out the window. She heard no noise, but the back corner of the baseball diamond was growing restless, as if someone or something had stirred the gravel. She squinted, but saw nothing else. Quickly, Felicity turned her attention back to the board, just as Mrs. Handel faced the class again. The red head braved another look and there it was. A big, blue box.

She panicked, raising her hand quickly. "Mrs. Handel! My apologies, but may I use the restroom? I'm not feeling completely well."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "It is rude to interrupt Ms. Williams, but go if you must."

Felicity nodded her thanks and jumped up, rushing out of the room with a hand on her stomach. She was always good at acting. Well, only if Mum wasn't around.

The closest building exit was down the hall to the left. She ran as fast as she could, feet thundering, and ran smack into a waist sized, pink creature with sharp teeth and pointy protrusions on each side of its head. She gasped.

"Oi, over here Graske-y!" The Doctor stood in the hallway opposite the doors that the Graske had always come through. He aimed his sonic screwdriver and disabled the other alien's vortex manipulator. The Graske quickly took off down the hallway, in the direction that Felicity had just come from. "Graske, why is it always a Graske?" The Doctor said to himself. He pocketed the sonic screwdriver and took off after it.

Felicity was frozen for a long moment before she finally found her voice. "Doctor!"

The Doctor skidded to a halt halfway down the hall, turning back to look at the curious girl behind him. "How do you know my name?" The red hair struck him as odd, but he shook it off. Lots of people had red hair. Except him.

"Well, that's... Nevermind that! What's that thing?" She was speaking louder than she wanted to, but that couldn't be helped much. The hallway echoed a bit here.

"It's a Graske, nasty little thing. It's been hopping around stirring up trouble and I'm trying to figure out why." He looked behind him to see that the Graske had disappeared down the next hallway. "Look see, he's gotten away thanks to you!"

"Oi, don't blame me!" she said indignantly. She closed the distance between them quickly, looking up at him. She wasn't really short, but she was only fourteen. "Mum was right, you do look like a dork."

"Mum? A dork?" He questioned. "Who's your mum?"

Instead of answering his question precisely, she held out her hand. "I'm Felicity Williams."

"Williams..." he paused in thought. He knew that name. He raised a finger as if suddenly remembering, then dropped it. The look on his face was confused. "I know that name, why do I know that name?"

"My parents are Rory and Amy Williams," she offered expectantly, dropping her outstretched hand. Time to see if they'd actually known this man.

"Amy and Rory!" he said suddenly, as if he'd been the one to remember instead of having her tell him. "How are they? Did Rory ever get rid of that disgusting ponytail he insisted on growing?"

Felicity giggled. "Dad cut it off when I was seven."

"How old are you then?" the Doctor asked, the Graske completely forgotten for the moment.

"I just turned fourteen yesterday," she answered, ignoring the oddity that was this alien in the middle of her school. He was just as strange as Mum had said, maybe even stranger. He certainly kept the suspenders and bow tie.

"But still, how exactly do you know my name?" he asked again, walking around her in a circle.

"Is that important right now?" she responded, gesturing down the hall with a nod of her head.

"Oh right, Graske, busy busy," he said, taking off down the hall with Felicity on his heels. "Oi, I never said you could come with!"

"Like I'd listen if you did!" she shot back, looking this way and that for a sign of the little pink thing.

"You're as bad as your mother," he said, taking out the sonic screwdriver and scanning the building for non-human lifeforms. The device beeped when he pointed it to their right, down a side hallway. "What's down there?"

"The swimming pool," she said, taking off after him. She was fairly certain that no one had swimming at the moment. Or at least she hoped not.

A cloud of warm chlorine hit them in the face as they flung open the door to the swimming pool. There was the Graske, running between the two pools. They had one for swimming and one for diving. Felicity preferred the diving one; it was deeper and she enjoyed diving, though she wasn't on the diving team by any means. The Doctor ran to the left and Felicity took the right, next to the bleachers. They might be able to corner the Graske in the back, but what the Doctor would do with it, she had no clue.

"Didn't your Mum ever tell you not to run in a pool area?" The Doctor shouted, though she couldn't tell whether he was yelling at her or the Graske. Their voices echoed in the large room. The Graske was running frantically now. With its vortex manipulator broken, it had nowhere to go. She really hoped that Mum hadn't been lying about the Doctor never hurting anyone.

The Graske stood, cornered and frightened, only a few feet away from them when they met up again. It wasn't nearly as scary as she first thought, but that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous. The Graske was looking at her in a peculiar way, like it wasn't quite afraid of her. More like curious. She cautiously inched forward, the Doctor watching her in fascination.

"Hello," she said timidly. The Graske nodded in response, as if it understood her language. "My name is Felicity. Do you know where you are?"

"Earth," the creature responded. His voice was rough, but she was able to understand him without too much difficulty.

"Yes, that's right. Why are you here?" she questioned. The Doctor stayed out of the girl's conversation, watching closely instead.

"Running," the Graske answered, gesturing to the Doctor with a pink hand. "From him."

"I didn't do anything to you! You stole the warp stabilizers off a Sontaran warship and they blamed me!" The Doctor huffed, his hair flopping around a bit from the expulsion of air.

"Is that right? Why did you steal them?" Felicity tucked her hair behind her ear nervously.

"Family needs food," the alien answered quietly. "Selling stabilizers on black market."

Felicity felt a pang of sympathy for the alien. He was just trying to feed his family... So what was the Doctor doing chasing him? She felt angry with the Time Lord until he lowered the sonic screwdriver and approached the Graske, crouching down to meet it at eye level.

"Just feeding your family?" he asked softly. The Graske nodded. It looked ashamed of what it had done, but not ashamed of protecting its family. A smile spread over the Doctor's face. "Quite right too." He raised the sonic screwdriver and repaired the alien's vortex manipulator. "Don't let me catch you stealing anything else now," he warned.

"Will not! Promise." The Graske looked very pleased to have its freedom. It waved a goodbye to Felicity and she waved in return. It punched a few buttons on the manipulator and it was gone.

Felicity let out a breath of air that she hadn't known she was holding. A bright smile spread over her face. An alien! The Doctor! It was all hitting her at once and she was overwhelmed with so many emotions: happiness, anxiety, excitement. Relief that she hadn't been dreaming of someone imaginary all this time.

The Doctor stood and looked at her curiously. "Felicity, was it?"

She nodded. "That's me." She hoped he wasn't mad at her.

A bright smile quickly spread across his face. "Thank you. Sometimes an old man like me forgets what simple words can do."

She returned the smile tenfold. "Anything to help." She suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be in the bathroom getting sick. She turned to the clock on the far wall and sighed. Noon. The bleachers to her right looked rather inviting and she sat down with a bit of a thud.

The Doctor sat next to her, hands folded with his elbows on his knees. "You never did answer my question," he finally pressed.

"Mum and Dad told me all about you. You were the bedtime story I had every single night since I was old enough to understand words," she said, looking at him as though she was pleased he was there, but couldn't quite believe it at the same time. "Mum drew me a picture of the TARDIS when I was six. It's on the wall in my room." She paused. "I didn't know you were real. They never said."

"And I'll bet you spent your whole life looking for that TARDIS on every street corner," he answered, looking at her with an amused smile. "You are very much like your mother. Took Rory's accent though, I see."

She nodded, watching the water in the pool that was only a few feet in front of her. "I like it more, though Mum says I should change it. I think she's kidding."

"It suits you, you should keep it," he insisted, standing up and holding out a hand. She took it and he pulled her up. She smiled and dropped his hand once the clock came back to her mind.

"I'm supposed to be in math class right now," she said with a bit of a giggle. "I saw the TARDIS on the baseball diamond and I told Mrs. Handel I felt sick so I could go to the bathroom."

"So you planned it the whole time, you little sneak!" He said, half impressed and half hitting himself in the head for what he knew was coming next. She was a child, even in human terms, but she had helped him... If she were anything like her mother or father, she would be interesting to have around. Still, something terrible might happen to her. But that had never stopped him before. Lost in his thoughts, he hadn't noticed her walking away from him.

"Oi, Felicity!" he started and she stopped. "Where do you think you're going?" She turned around, eyebrow raised.

"I just said I have class," she replied, pointing to the door.

"You'd rather have math class than the whole of time and space?" He scoffed. "Even I wouldn't take that."

"What?" Her eyes grew wide, saucers so very like her mother's. "Really? I mean, I can-"

"If you want to stay here, that's fine," he pointed a finger at her in an almost accusing manner. "Far be it from me to tell you what to do!"

A joyous smile spread across her face. "I'd love to!"

His expression turned serious. "But you've got to know, it'd dangerous out there. Aliens and war and death wait in the stars. But it's beautiful too. If you come with me, you have to promise me that you'll always do exactly as I say. If something bad happens, you get in the TARDIS and you stay there, no questions asked. Your parents would kill me if something bad happened to you. Am I understood?"

She nodded vigorously. "Please, Doctor?"

"Well alright, but only because you said please." Amy and Rory were going to kill him.

She cheered and snagged him in an enthusiastic hug, which he returned, though surprised. "When do we leave?"

"A bit impatient you are, are you sure your mother didn't just clone herself?" He let go of her and looked around, suddenly realizing that he couldn't remember how they'd gotten here or where exactly he had parked. "Well, if you could lead the way, we'll go now!"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You don't remember where the TARDIS is, do you?"

"Not at all." He looked rather pleased with himself.

"You're already useless," she announced, heading toward the door with the Time Lord on her heels.

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Christine twirled her hair around a finger, wondering where exactly Felicity had gotten to. Mrs. Handel seemed to have forgotten all about it. She was busily scribbling more examples on the board for the class to copy down. The clock ticked away and the chair in front of her stayed empty. She sighed, wondering if the ginger girl had gone to the nurse.

She was debating on whether or not to pack her friend's bag back up for her when movement out the window caught her eye. She casually stood, sliding her leg under her so she would sit taller in the insufferable desk she was always stuck in. She saw a flash of red hair and a man disappear into a blue box across the baseball diamond that she was absolutely certain hadn't been there before. The light on the top of the box flashed and she saw the whole thing simply fade away.

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The Doctor didn't tell Felicity the real reason that he brought her along with him.

He wasn't daft, the girl was 14 for crying out loud. Hardly a companion at her age, but perhaps a TARDIS passenger. He didn't want to crush her hopes of traveling, though. He couldn't promise her that he'd ever come back for her either, which is what she would have wanted. The child of Amy and Rory was interesting and intelligent, never mind that she'd helped him. She deserved a hop around the galaxy at least, before he took her home.

He could pretend those were the reasons, at least.

The truth was far more alarming, something that he had never seen in all 908 years of time travel. He wondered if it was a result of having Amy as a mother. Amy, who had the universe running through her head as a child. The one who had brought him back after the Big Bang II. It seemed the only logical explanation, though how Amy would have thought to do it, or even just do it, was a mystery to him. Felicity, for all her innocent, inquisitive nature, was far more than a simple 14 year old girl. He could see the threads of time bend around her. Her entire time line was in flux, from birth to death. There were almost infinite possibilities, many more than even he could think about.

Whoever this girl really was, she was important. She had to be kept safe.


	4. Chapter 3

"It really is bigger on the inside!" Felicity exclaimed, running up the steps inside the TARDIS. She looked around in wonder. Mum had tried to explain what exactly the interior looked like, but Felicity's mental picture wasn't even close. She walked around the console, gently touching, but never pressing buttons or pulling levers. She spotted the stairs in the corner and made a note to investigate the rest of the craft at a later time.

"You don't know the half of it! There are 215 rooms in my TARDIS. Rooms that I know about, anyway," the Doctor said, half to himself, following her up the steps.

"Do I get a room?" She asked, hoping that her stay would be more permanent than she thought it would.

"If you like, pick any room you want. Ooh, except you probably wouldn't want to sleep in the library."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Why not?"

"Swimming pool," he answered, leaning over the TARDIS console, busily pressing buttons and pulling levers. The machine cast a warm glow on his face.

"What? You just said library." She examined a button that looked strangely like a hat.

"Yes, the swimming pool is in the library. You're going to have to get better at listening, Pond."

"That's not my last name," she said, hopping up the stairs and sitting on the top one.

"Well it should be," he responded. "Hold on tight!" He pulled a switch and the TARDIS suddenly came alive, tossing them both like the innards of a pair of maracas. Felicity's delighted laughter filled the TARDIS. She stood and managed to make her way back down the steps while clutching the railing beside her for dear life. The Doctor shot her a smile, then pressed another button. "How does the future sound?"

"Sounds great!" she answered loudly, over the whirr of the TARDIS's engine. She was half expecting to end up with many more bruises than she actually got. She scuttled along the railing, then made a lunge for the console. Unfortunately, she flew too far forward and hit her head on a most threatening switch, which threw the TARDIS very off course and tossed her to the floor. "Oww!"

"You're already causing trouble!" The Doctor hurriedly flipped the switch back to its previous position, but it was too late. The TARDIS whirred loudly and Felicity almost rolled off the platform and down into the open area below. The Doctor pulled himself into a standing position and reached far across the switches and levers to the specific doodlebob that Felicity had hit and pulled. The TARDIS ground to a halt almost immediately and he let his grip falter. He almost fell to the floor, but caught himself and stood up, straightening his bow tie.

Felicity got up from the floor, rubbing her head where there was an unpleasant looking mark forming. "What happened?"

"You happened!" he answered, a bit perturbed. "You hit the doodlebob-"

"The doodlebob?"

"Yes, the- Why am I always repeating things around you?" He pulled the TARDIS' computer screen around to check the coordinates. "Oooh, this is extremely very not good at all."

"What?" Felicity felt her stomach turn to ice. "What's wrong? What did I do?"

"Well no one's died. Yet." He double checked the coordinates, then sauntered in the general direction of the TARDIS door. "You reversed the path that I took the last time, took us back to the last place I was before I followed the Graske to Earth. I was hoping to avoid them. I wonder if they left when I asked them to."

She thought back to the conversation with the Graske. "You said they were... Sun-something."

"Sontarans, war-like race, look a bit like a baked potato, or so I've heard. They've been in a war with the Rutan Host for fifty thousand years."

"A war for that long? Why?"

"To win," he replied, pulling a lever to properly park the machine where she was. "You stay here, I'll go see if they've landed or run away. Sontarans claim to be an honorable race, but they have no problems using anything to their advantage."

She nodded. "I suppose you don't know how long you'll be gone."

"No idea," he responded, bounding toward the TARDIS door. "However..." He paused, looking around. He ran over to the chest in the corner and began digging through it, pulling out what looked like an old walkie-talkie. It was fairly bulky, as far as walkie talkies went. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and Felicity watched as he aimed it, the whirr almost inaudible from where she was standing. "There! Attuned to the TARDIS frequency. I'll be taking this with me and I can talk to you whenever I want, just grab the microphone over there to talk back." He gestured in the general direction of the TARDIS's console and Felicity had to examine it for a moment before she found what looked like the microphone to a CB radio. Those radios were so old, she'd never seen one used before. Only old, junky ones that hadn't seen any use in years.

"How are you going to carry that thing around? Don't you have something less... ridiculous?"

"Excuse me, but I don't see you pulling one of those Bluetooth... things out of your pocket. My headset was stepped on by that father of yours while we were running from a group of angry Ood owners." He managed to stuff the walkie-talkie into his jacket pocket, though it looked a bit silly.

"What's an Ood?"

"Something we set free," he replied, crossing back to the TARDIS door with a whirl. "Don't go anywhere, don't touch anything." He paused. "Except the microphone."

"I gathered that, thanks," she said, a bit sarcastically.

He pointed a finger at her with a smile. "Watch it. I'll be back! Hopefully," he added. He quietly slipped out the door, huge walkie-talkie in pocket. Felicity stood next to the console and waited.

And waited. And waited. And then she waited some more. And, just for good measure, she waited again. She sat on the floor and pondered the situation for a while, talking to herself as she went. "Mum and Dad will be so furious with me. I wonder how long I can stay here? What if I grow up and I come back and I'm 20?" She decided that wouldn't be so bad, except for the missed years of school. And what if that meant she couldn't get into college? "I guess I'll just have to travel with the Doctor forever," she decided. "Or at least until I find some way of getting back into society after I'm older." That didn't sound like a bad idea at all.

xxxxxxxxxx

The Doctor stepped quietly out of the TARDIS. The planet they were on was surrounded on all sides by Sontaran warships, bent on using the planet as an outpost. It was a strategic point, they had said, crucial to winning the war against the Rutan Host. Never mind that the planet had several hundred thousand inhabitants of many different species. The Sontarans seemed to want to eliminate them all, in favor of taking over the planet completely. The natives were not aware of their presence yet, but they would be very soon if something wasn't done.

The Doctor had demanded before that they leave. He had blown a few of their vacant escape pods up as a warning when he had given them the choice to leave and they had refused. It was then that the Graske had made off with the cooled warp stabilizers of the mothership, leaving it to travel at a normal speed. They would never make it back to their home planet with their lifespans unless they evacuated onto the rest of the warrior ships and abandoned the mothership. But of course, they had blamed the Doctor and decided this planet was to burn for his crime. Busy day as usual.

The sky was lavender as he carefully trekked the distance to the Sontaran ship on the horizon. It was the landed mothership, he decided, judging by the size. Without warp stabilizers, it was useless to them, for now at least. They could retrieve replacements from Sontar or another nearby planet, but that would take time. Time that they didn't have and time that the Doctor didn't really feel like giving them today. Or any day, for that matter.

Oh, he knew how to get rid of them. It would be easy, he just didn't want to resort to that. The Atraxi wouldn't help the situation, but the Shadow Proclamation just might. They were still quite angry with him, however, so he really wanted to avoid them if possible. He just didn't think today was that particular possible. Or that particular if.

He spotted the Sontarans from a significant distance away, but they hadn't spotted him. He hoped. The Doctor scuttled around the boxes that they were unloading from the mothership; likely ammunition and supplies like food that were meant to help establish the outpost on this planet. He debated sonic-ing their foodstuffs to increase the rate of decomposition, but decided against it. They might hear it and he didn't want that. There were guards everywhere, but he didn't necessarily need to get inside the ship, per se. Just have access to speak with the General and give him a chance, face to face. Which he would have very soon, it seemed.

He noted, from the shadow on the ground, that the Sontaran behind him had a gun aimed very obviously at his head. "Stand, Doctor."

The Time Lord almost sighed, but did as the baked potato demanded. "You don't have to be so rude about it," he said casually.

The Sontaran huffed and pressed his communicator. "General, this is Field Major Staag. I have captured the Doctor."

The General's voice came over the machine with a hint of surprise and smugness. "Our foe has not deserted his battle! How surprising. Bring him to the bridge!"

"Yes sir!" Staag roughly pushed the gun into the Doctor's ribs. "Forward!"

"I really wish you'd put that thing down. Why is everyone so rude to me?" he thought aloud. "Accused of this, chased around by that, no one likes me today." He slowly made his way forward, following the directions set forth by Staag. This wasn't exactly part of the plan. Then again, there wasn't a plan to begin with. He couldn't remember the last time he had actually made a plan. Who needs a plan anyway?

Field Major Staag guided him to the bridge, but it wasn't like he didn't already know the way himself. The alien's orders were tedious at best and the Doctor almost rolled his eyes. "I know the way, you realize. I was here already today, do you remember?" The Sontaran just shoved the barrel of the gun harder into his back.

They approached the bridge, which had the strangest name and the Doctor had no idea why they called it that since it didn't resemble any bridge he'd ever seen, and the Sontaran General welcomed his Field Major, as well as shooting a smug smile in the Doctor's direction. "Admirable capture, Field Major Staag."

"Thank you, General Starhl sir." Staag stood back from the two, but kept his gun ready. The area was wide open, steps ascending on all sides to the large window in front of them. Hallways in the back of the room seemed to go in every direction. The lights burned overhead, but the lavender sky outside counteracted much of it. The bridge was the area of the ship that the Generals usually occupied, to watch the war from the comfort of their chairs. _"Hardly honorable,"_ the Doctor thought.

"Well, Doctor," the General said, addressing the Time Lord directly. "I had thought you ran away like a frightened beast. This honor is most becoming in a foe. All the better to bring honor to Sontar."

"Honor is only becoming if deserved, General. In your case, I'd say less deserved than mine."

The General became enraged. "You are a prisoner of General Starhl the Merciless of the Sixth Sontaran Battle Fleet! You dare belittle my authority?"

The Doctor made a noise like a stifled giggle in amusement. "You said belittle."

"Throw him in a cell!" The General barked. Staag made a grab for the Doctor's arm, but he danced away up the stairs to his right, pulling out the walkie-talkie and aiming his sonic screwdriver at it threateningly. "See this? This is an oh-so-cleverly crafted bomb, a lovely little thing, which can only be activated by a particular frequency, which my screwdriver is now set to. Now, if you don't want this entire room to go up in a ball of flames and overbaked potato...ness, I highly suggest you stay back!"

"You bluff!" the General seethed. He raised the gun at his side threateningly.

"Try me! Leave this planet now, or it goes off!" He looked back and forth between the General and the Field Major, who both stood, watching him carefully.

"We will shoot you before you get the chance!" the General stated confidently.

"You're willing to die for a pointless war, but not die to a madman with a screwdriver?"

"There is no honor in causing the death of your comrades!" the Field Major said, gun aimed carefully.

"But there _is_ honor in saving them!" the Doctor countered angrily. "This bomb could end up killing your soldiers. But you'd both rather slaughter millions. The Great Sontaran race. How very dishonorable."

"I have had enough of your games, Doctor!" The General pressed a button on his communicator. The lights began to flash all over the ship as the summons went out and the extra hallways were closed off by heavy metal doors. Every Sontaran soldier on board was marching to the bridge.

"Uh oh." The Doctor looked to the General, then up at the lights and back again. "Um... Yes, well, I suppose...Uh, bye then!" He quickly ran and ducked down, rolling under the closest door, which he knew happened to be the entrance to the engine room. Gunfire and voices followed him until the door was shut. It would only be moments until it was opened again. He ran down the hall as fast as he could, raising the walkie-talkie to his mouth. "The Doctor to Felicity! Do you read me?"


	5. Chapter 4

Felicity was counting the buttons on the TARDIS for the seventh time. Each time she came up with a different number. She remembered Mum telling her that the machine was actually alive. Maybe it changed the buttons when she wasn't looking?

"The Doctor to Felicity! Do you read me?"

Felicity jumped. She wasn't expecting that at all. She ran around the console and grabbed the microphone. "Felicity to the Doctor, I can hear you loud and clear!"

"Good, good, you're still there, okay-" The doors far behind him opened. Chants of "Sontar-ha!" echoed in the dark hallway.

"Doctor, what's that noise?" It sounded far away, but it was definitely someone, or some thing, talking. She heard the echo of gunshots.

"Don't worry about it, just listen, there's something I need you do to." Always so much running. It's a wonder his feet never hurt.

"What's that?"

"I need you to use the TARDIS to alert the Shadow Proclamation that the Sontarans are attempting to take over a level 5 planet with intent to eliminate all lifeforms and use the area as a military outpost," he said quickly, ducking around a corner.

"You want me to what?"

"They won't leave the planet willingly, it's not an option for them, just... Press the red button!"

She looked around the console frantically. She had only seen one red button, tiny and out of the way. She spoke into the microphone again, "The one next to the switch that looks like a chess piece?"

"No, the one next to the lever that looks like a whisk," he answered, running down the next hallway. He could hear the loud hum of the cooling system now, over the Sontaran chants. The engine room would be very close by.

Felicity looked about again, then thumped her hand on the console in frustration. "That's the same button!"

"Just press it, will you!" he yelled, aiming the sonic screwdriver at the door in front of him. It unlocked and opened, too slowly for his taste. He rushed into the engine room, a massive echoing place. Despite the cooling systems, it was still very warm. It was likely oppressively hot while the engine was running. The seemed the Sontarans hadn't touched down very long ago, perhaps less than an hour. He turned around and sonic'd the door shut.

Felicity nervously pressed the button. The screen on the TARDIS flashed repeatedly. She reached over and pulled it toward her, just in time to see a woman in black appear. "This is the Shadow Architect speaking. Who- Wait a moment, that's-!"

Felicity raised the microphone to her mouth. "Doctor, what do I say?" she hissed.

"Say what I told you to say!" He was busily aiming the sonic screwdriver at everything he could find, attempting to locate the outward ventilation system for the engine.

Felicity turned back to the screen nervously. The woman in black was speaking to the... rhinoceroses next to her. She took a deep breath. "Please, ma'am, I need your help."

"Who are you?" the Shadow Architect demanded. "The Doctor is-"

"Please, there is a situation," Felicity interrupted. "The Sontarans are trying to capture a planet, the planet that I'm on right now. They're trying to convert it into a military outpost for their war, but they want to wipe the whole planet of living things. The Doctor is trapped in their mothership, this planet needs your help."

"I'm not trapped, I'm sightseeing!" came the voice from the speaker. "There's a big difference!" He used the sonic screwdriver to scramble the computer that was in charge of the multiple ventilation and cooling systems, redirecting all of the heat to one specific area of the massive engine. He could hear the echoes of the Sontaran voices just outside the door.

"What are your coordinates?" the Shadow Architect demanded.

"Uhh... Doctor, what are our coordinates?"

"What? Oh! Uh... I don't remember," he answered, watching the computer screen begin to flash a warning. _"Perfect!"_

"What! You're useless!"

"You're not helping, Pond," he said, running to hide behind a piece of machinery while the Sontarans marched right past him.

"Stop calling me that!" she snapped.

"Then stop acting like one," he responded quietly. He stayed out of sight until the Sontarans had marched past, but they would be back soon. He lifted the walkie-talkie again, "Let me think, let me think... Coordinates... Wait a moment." He paused and his eyes widened in realization. "We're on Melissa Majoria! This is brilliant, I love bees!"

Felicity ignored him, rolled her eyes and turned back to the screen. "We're on Melissa Majoria," she reported. "I'm not sure where on it, though."

"The whole area is surrounded by Sontaran warships," the Doctor said, trying to sneak past the guards that were making rounds about the huge engine room. "Trust me, they won't miss it."

Felicity relayed the information and the Shadow Architect nodded. "Assistance is on its way."

"Thank you!" Felicity said, turning away from the image.

The Shadow Architect had other ideas. "You, silly human girl. The Doctor should know better than to take children on his journey with him."

Felicity faced the screen and bristled. "I'm not a child. If the Doctor trusts me enough to keep me in the TARDIS when he isn't here, then that means he knows I'm more than just a silly human."

The Shadow Architect was visibly angered, but she didn't reply. The communication was shut off and Felicity leaned back against the railing, breathing a sigh of relief. Suddenly, the Doctor's voice came over the speaker again. "Uh oh."

Felicity lunged for the mic. "Uh oh isn't good, why uh oh?"

The Doctor jumped over an abandoned toolkit, almost losing his foot to a Sontaran blaster. "They found where I was hiding, but that's okay, don't worry about me. I've shut off their ventilation systems, if they don't get out of the ship soon, the heat will build up in the engine."

"Is it going to explode?" she asked, trying not to think about it. What was she supposed to do if the Doctor got blown up? She couldn't save him, she wouldn't begin to have a clue.

"Of course not. Well, probably not. But the Sontarans will have to evacuate the ship soon, according to their computer, meaning all of their high ranking commanders and such will be out in the open. Perfect for the Shadow Proclamation." Blasters rang out all around him and he had to switch between ducking and jumping to avoid yet another regeneration. "There's got to be another way to the cargo bay... Here!" He slipped down a side hallway, sonic-ing doors as he went. The echoes of "Sontar-ha!" weren't getting any quieter, much to his chagrin. The cargo bay was up ahead and he ran down the ramp as fast as he could, straight into the blaster of General Starhl.

The General was standing amongst the unloaded crates, looking quite unhappy with him. "Oh, hello again General, you're looking... angry." The Doctor raised his hands, after quickly putting the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket.

The Sontaran raised his gun to the Time Lord's chest. "Doctor, you have interrupted my mission. I will therefore have the honor of dispatching one of Sontar's greatest enemies."

"You know, now that I think about it there's one thing that you and I actually have in common," the Doctor said, backing away from him slowly.

The General huffed. "There is no resemblance between you and the great Sontaran race."

"But there is, really. There's one big resemblance that always helps me and never helps you."

"And what would that be, Doctor?" the General asked, arming his weapon.

The Doctor snapped his fingers and pointed up. "We both like to monologue!"

Brilliant lights suddenly flashed across the sky, blinding the people below.. A booming, female voice echoed through the clouds. "Under Article 58 of the Shadow Proclamation, we are authorized to arrest and detain the Sixth Sontaran Battle Fleet invasion force." Several spaceships began to descend from the clouds and the Doctor gave a yell of relief.

"No!" General Starhl fired, but the Doctor was faster. He managed to duck behind crates and pieces of equipment until the General hurriedly rushed back into his ship, intent on a take-off. The engine would never function now, though. Not with the computers scrambled and the ventilation system about as useful as a bowling ball with no finger holes.

The Doctor ran quickly, speaking into the walkie-talkie, "Felicity, we're going to have to make a quick take off, I'm afraid. The Shadow Proclamation doesn't much like me."

"Fine with me, I've just been sitting in here all day," she replied, just happy that he was coming back at all. She replaced the mic and the Doctor flew into the console room only a few minutes later.

"Hello there, miss me?" He asked, tossing the walkie-talkie over his shoulder and back into the chest it had come from. Sort of. It kind of fell out right afterward, but he ignored that bit.

"Like a bout of bronchitis," she answered with a smile.

He ran to the console, pressing buttons and pulling levers. She watched, but decided there was no way to follow what he was doing without labels on the buttons or some sort of... manual. She grabbed the railing as the TARDIS took off, tossing them both around again. She couldn't help the smile that spread over her face. The Doctor saw it and mirrored it with one of his own.

xxxxxxxxxx

"So, what do you think?"

"It's amazing!" Felicity leaned out the TARDIS door. They were floating in space, far above Melissa Majoria, watching the Sontaran ships being grounded. It was beautiful out here, all the stars and light. She'd never seen space quite like this before, not even with the telescope that her Dad had bought her for her tenth birthday. She was quiet for a while. "So, why did we call the Shadow Proclamation again?"

"Because," the Doctor said, turning away and walking back to the center of the room. "The Sontarans were on a mission to claim the planet as their own. The people of Melissa Majoria are peaceful and neutral, they aren't exactly carrying massive weapons around in their pockets, not that there would have been any time to arm them even if they did. There was nothing I could have done to make them leave, apart from killing them, especially since the warp stabilizers of the mothership were conveniently missing, and I can't exactly arrest an entire battle fleet on my own."

Felicity shut the door. "You have me though!"

"Oh yes, a human girl, that's very scary indeed," he responded cheekily, working at the TARDIS console yet again.

"I helped you!" She said defensively, marching up the steps.

"Yes, you did. But then again I could have used the Sontaran communication system to patch in to the Shadow Proclamation's receivers," he quipped.

"Oh whatever, you were too busy running." The TARDIS screen flashed and Felicity looked up. She saw the blueprint of the interior of a Sontaran mothership, conveniently supplied by the time machine she was standing in. Two sections of the picture were lit up, labeled and flashing, rather far from each other. They represented the respective areas that both the Doctor and the communication system had been. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him as a way of demanding an explanation.

"Oi, don't give her a big head!" The Doctor reached up and turned the screen off. Felicity laughed at him. She took a seat at the bottom of the stairs. The Doctor looked at her, then walked over and sat beside her. "So."

"So."

"What do you think?"

"About what?"

"About pickles," he said sarcastically. "About traveling in time and space of course."

"It's... brilliant." She paused. "Am I ever going to get to go with you when you save the world?"

"You're a bit young right now," he said, pausing to think. "When you say 'ever'..."

"Well," she started awkwardly, looking down at her lap. "I don't like... being there. On Earth. I have Mum and Dad and they're wonderful, and I have Trisha and Christine, but... Every day is the same thing. It's always wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, come home, watch telly, go to bed."

"Monotonous," he offered. She nodded.

"Nothing interesting ever happens. Nothing at all. Aside from the occasional alien invasion, but that's always covered up, and then everything goes back to being... monotonous." She looked up at him. "I hate it."

"I wonder what your Mum and Dad would do if they saw you here," he said with a smile.

"Probably kill me," she responded. "They never said you were real, so I thought... You were just a story. A story I've heard a million times. But you're real. How can they ever expect me to go back after this?"

"Maybe they wouldn't," he answered finally. "That Mum of yours wanted to stay for a long time. And she did. Your Dad too. But they wanted a family along with it. The TARDIS is not a safe place to raise a baby."

Felicity smiled a little. "I don't suppose it would be." The smile faded. "But I can stay? For as long as I want?"

"If you like," he said, jumping up from his seat. "You've helped me twice now. And... An old man like me gets to talking to himself if there's no one else around." He turned to look at her.

"You'd make your own ear fall off," she declared, pulling herself up by the railing.

"What's that supposed to mean? You're awfully cheeky, am I going to have to keep putting up with this over and over again?" he asked, pulling this and pushing that on the console.

"Probably," she answered, slipping her hands into the pockets of her jeans as the TARDIS started to whirr. "That alright?"

He grinned at her, the glow of the spaceship lighting up his face. "It's fantastic."


	6. Chapter 5

When I was a little kid, my Mum and Dad used to tell me bedtime stories about a fantastic alien with a time machine. An alien who saved planets and rescued people in need. I always thought they were stories, nothing real. But I wished they had been.

When I was 14, I met a man called the Doctor. My fantastic alien with a time machine. We saved an entire civilization from destruction by a race of baked potatoes called Sontarans. Two weeks after that, the Doctor took me to a planet on the other side of the universe, where horrible things called Cybermen were slaughtering a colony of humanoids on an orbiting asteroid. We went into the future and we traveled into the past, always making pit stops for fish fingers and custard. That's his favorite food... somehow. I saw the first human colony outside of our solar system. I got to meet Alexander the Great, though the Doctor said he had met him before. We traveled seven galaxies away, to a planet where the grass was blue and the sky was green. We ran into more than one Graske, and they always seemed to be stirring up some kind of trouble. One of my favorite planets had bright orange water and natives that looked like pink, inside-out jellyfish for the head, but with human bodies. The Doctor began to teach me all sorts of wonderful things: properties of time travel, how to read and speak many different languages, and everything I wanted to know about science. He only taught when I asked, but I asked all the time. However, he wouldn't tell me anything about his people, beyond that they are called Time Lords.

When I was 15, we prevented a group of aliens known as the Slitheen from destroying every planet in an entire solar system. They were Raxacoricofallapatorians, apparently. The Ice Crystal was just that: a huge chunk of ice suspended in the middle of space. It absorbed light from the suns there and reflected it in every direction you could imagine. It never really melted; space itself is too cold. It just reshaped itself over time. But the light from the Crystal traveled for hundreds of miles in every direction, lighting up the galaxy. There was a planet that was roughly the size of Mars, but all yellow instead of red, with 90% of the surface area of the planet as water. There was a colony of Hath there, these fish humanoids. They were kind creatures, but they were really hard to understand when they spoke. I learned more about the planets of the universe and the thousands of species that inhabited it. They were all so strange and wonderful. I grew to like the Ood species very much. The Doctor told me about the time he and a previous companion had set the entire species free from enslavement. I asked about her, and he briefly told me what happened to her, to Donna. He was so sad. I never asked about another companion again. He still refused to tell me anything about his planet.

When I was 16, he took me to a planet called Floorn, where they raise massive sheep-like creatures, as big as mammoths, and use their fur for clothing. The baby sheep-mammoths were as tall as the Doctor and I remember one almost knocking him over. Then we traveled to a planet that was being overrun by creatures that look like monstrous, giant yetis, which crawl on all fours and have teeth the size of a human man's arm. We had to move the resident sentient species to another, slightly warmer planet; they appreciated it very much. We watched the explosion of a supernova from the comfort of the TARDIS. It was so beautiful. Every color you could imagine, stretching out to the stars. I had learned enough to begin practicing reading the books in the library in their native languages, asking the TARDIS nicely to stop translating everything for me. It was very difficult to keep them all straight, but I managed it in the end. I asked the Doctor about his people and he refused to comment. Again. But he finally stopped calling me Pond.

When I was 17, the Doctor had a bit of a mishap with the TARDIS and we ended up back on Earth. Just for a little while, but it turned out that the Rift in Cardiff had tossed an alien called a Hoix into the 15th century, so we had to do a bit of clean up. The week after that, a male Nostrovite almost bit me, which would have been very bad, the Doctor later explained. We traveled to a planet called Clom, where these nasty, ugly things called Abzorbaloffs live. They tried break into the TARDIS and kill me, but the Doctor managed to save me just in time. He took me to the edge of the universe, where everything was still dark. It was tranquil, but somehow a bit scary. To make up for it, he took me to the center, the origin of the Big Bang, where everything was so bright, warm and optimistic. The Doctor told me a story that I was both waiting and frightened to hear, about the Dream Lord and what he'd done to my parents. "Time is in flux, in some places," he explained to me. "Some things must happen and some things we must prevent at all costs." He seemed angry when I asked about his planet this time, as if he was losing his patience. Except I know that he wasn't.

When I was 18, the Doctor _finally_ let me accompany him properly, not stay stuck in the TARDIS as I'd been for every other time he managed to save a world.

But when I was 18... I met the Daleks.


	7. Chapter 6

"Doctor, where and when are we?" Felicity stepped over a root that was protruding from the ground. She hadn't had time to read the TARDIS's screen before the Doctor had rushed outside in a burst of energy. He was doing that a lot lately, she wasn't entirely sure why.

"We are on a lovely little planet called Mesopotamia in the 45th century," he answered, ducking under a tree branch. "This particular planet allows no off-world visitors and I'm rather interested in why, since we're here." It was midday, but the temperature was pleasing to Felicity; the Doctor couldn't feel it either way, so it didn't much matter to him.

"Mesopotamia? The ancient Earth area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers?" She almost laughed aloud. These days, the way she talked made her sound not human.

"That exact one!" He replied, rather pleased that she knew her history, even though she always did. "They named this planet after ancient Mesopotamia because there are two, massive rivers, one on either side of the main land mass."

"A good name," she decided, as they stepped out of the trees. A huge city loomed before them, tall buildings everywhere, but not quite as tall as the ones on Earth. Every building was the color of sand, but the inhabitants accentuated it with all sorts of colors everywhere, on billboards, signs, everything. The city was apparently named Babylon. _"How fitting."_

"Shall we?" The Doctor headed off in the direction of the city without waiting for a reply. It wasn't like she was going to suddenly decide to go back to the TARDIS. Not a chance.

Felicity followed close behind him. She had been able to go with him for a little while now, something she thoroughly enjoyed. She had made great friends with the TARDIS for four years, but now it was time for the big stuff. She had been the Doctor's tech support, for lack of a better term. It had been fun and he'd included her whenever possible, but it was so much more exciting out here.

She'd argued with him, of course; all the time, really. She just wanted to see what he saw, but he wouldn't let her. Her parents would have disapproved, of course, just like he said, but she didn't care. He did, however. He was adamant that she wasn't allowed to put herself in danger until she was older. She sort of understood his reasoning, but she didn't have to like it. He just kept her safe until she was old enough, just in case her parents ended up trying to kill him whenever it was that she decided to leave, which was never, but they didn't know that.

They approached the city carefully, noting the technology. To Felicity, it looked like the 51st century, but there were notable differences. Namely, people's fashion sense. The Doctor seemed to ignore all of the odd clothing and funny hats. Felicity couldn't help staring at one or two of them, but they were quickly forgotten in favor of the Doctor, who was jabbering on about something or another.

"...So they all came here to this planet and settled down. The human race has only been here for a few hundred years, not bad progress at all." They walked all around the city, noting landmarks in order to find their way back to the TARDIS when it was time. Someone took to staring at the Doctor every once in a while and Felicity heard whispers about his choice of clothing, once from a lady in a yellow fluorescent bodysuit and another from a man who looked as though he was wearing a hat shaped like a fish. _"They're ones to talk,"_ she thought.

There was an infant crying and he caught Felicity's eye. She complimented the mother on her adorable baby, but the woman looked at her as if she hadn't heard the word before. Felicity mentioned this oddity to the Doctor, since she knew the TARDIS translated everything. He immediately came up with something having to do with clones and a teacup. She just shrugged her shoulders and followed him down the next street.

The red-head was inspecting a shop window when something interesting caught the Doctor's eye. There were speculative news broadcasts on multiple holoscreens about the High Council of Babylon gathering together for an emergency meeting, apparently having to do with the unknown spaceship sighting that had occurred only an hour before in the forest north of the city. "Spaceship sighting?" the Doctor said, half to himself.

"Why would they be on about that? Spaceships are everywhere these days. That's nothing special, even if they don't allow off-world visitors." Felicity approached the holoscreens, standing at the Doctor's side. A picture of what she assumed was the High Council's building flashed across the screen briefly.

"They would have dispatched the military for an unknown spaceship, unless... It was a crash," the Doctor suggested, looking at her from the corner of his eye.

"Perhaps it was. But wouldn't they have sent out people to investigate it, or see if any S.O.S. signals were broadcast while it was falling?" She crossed her arms in thought. She was almost as tall as he was now.

"That's just it!" he said, coming to a conclusion before any more evidence was presented. "There wasn't one. If there were any signals, aggressive or otherwise, they wouldn't have any need to be so cautious. So, if there is no communication at all from a crashing spacecraft-"

"-Either the crew can't communicate-"

"-Or they're already dead," he finished slowly.

"There could have been something dangerous aboard that spaceship. Something that the council doesn't want anyone to know. Maybe they don't even know," she added, a gleam in her eye. "We passed that building on the way here. Shall we investigate?"

"Oh, I think so," he replied happily, holding out an arm for her. She took it and they were off to the meeting of the High Council of Babylon.

xxxxxxxxxx

Council Head Lewis Raston was in a foul mood. His husband had banished him to the couch the previous night for no reason at all, his cat had insisted on sleeping on his head while he himself was attempting to sleep, meaning he hadn't actually slept a wink, and he woke up this morning to find that their new, noseless dog had done his business on the floor in the kitchen while they were all cozy in their beds. And to top it all off, there was now an emergency High Council meeting to discuss the urgent image that had come from the crashed spaceship just before it landed. Ridiculous.

He threw open the doors to the meeting room. It was a large hall with a tall, vaulted ceiling. It was an old Earth design, Gothic if he remembered the word right. It was a beautiful place, but the sight of it wore on the nerves of every Council member; they spent far too much time in here. Everyone else was already in attendance, he noted silently, official Council members in their official Council robes. A few turned to greet him, but the rest were silent with troubled looks on their faces, speaking quietly amongst themselves. He cleared his throat, a signal for all the members to be seated. They all moved quickly, anxious to discover what exactly this image was. He stood at his podium and nodded greetings to everyone present.

"The 302nd meeting of the High Council of Babylon is hereby called to order." Raston's voice echoed in the chamber. The rest of the council was watching him with a mixture of concern, anxiety, and curiosity. "A ship crash landed in the north forest exactly one hour and eleven minutes ago. This ship is of unknown origin. From what little was seen, the model is a mystery, possibly a private vessel. There was a group of civilians who reportedly ventured into the forest just after the ship crashed. None have returned and no others have attempted to investigate. The troubling image, I assume, has been sent to us?" He looked to one of the female council members, who nodded. "Then let us review it." He hit a button on his podium and the holoscreen flared to life. Another button and the image was played.

Everyone was silent as they watched. It was a video, only a few seconds long. The outline of two figures flashed across the screen. They looked as thought they were made of metal, tall and heavy. The Council watched the video repeatedly, but could discern little else.

"As the High Council, we must send a proper military convoy to survey the area and find survivors, if possible," one of the men said, after the video had been paused at the end. Several others nodded their agreement.

A woman piped up, "Perhaps we should exercise a bit more caution. They looked like robots, at least to me. The fact that the civilians have not returned is worrisome."

"What do you propose we should-"

A huge bang suddenly echoed through the hall. Several of the members looked around in fright. "What was that?"

Another, louder bang. It seemed to be coming from the entrance. Raston straightened himself to his full height and walked cautiously to the door. Another bang. Then a fourth. He was prepared to defend himself, if necessary.

He pulled open the door and there stood a man and a woman, roughly his height, both in odd clothing. Defend himself, indeed.

The man pulled a wallet out of his pocket and flashed the paper inside at Raston, putting it back in his pocket as he spoke. "Hello! I'm the Doctor, this is Felicity. We have heard about and are greatly interested in your rumors about a crashed spaceship." His hands were folded and he tried catching glimpses of the Council meeting over Raston's dark hair.

Raston raised an eyebrow at the pair, their faces unknown to him. "What would you know about the spaceship? You look like off-world visitors, which is not allowed."

"The Doctor is an expert on all things, terrestrial, non-terrestrial, or otherwise," Felicity said confidently. The Doctor pushed past Raston and into the inner chamber with Felicity right beside him, still arm in arm.

He waved a greeting at the Council members, who had all jumped out of their seats and were demanding to know who exactly he was and what he was doing there, barging into the middle of an important meeting. "Oi, don't all talk at once," Felicity interrupted, looking from one angry face to the next. The Doctor ran forward, up to the podium before anyone could stop him. The room instantly quieted. The council members were watching the Doctor with a mix of anger and confusion.

"There, that's better," he said, relieved at the lack of noise. "Now then. I'm the Doctor. I've heard about your crashed spaceship and I'm here to help."

The talking erupted again and Felicity sighed in frustration, standing off to the side, away from the group. They were human, just like she was, but sometimes humans were so... _annoying_.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and slammed his hand down on the podium. It echoed throughout the room and there was silence once more. "Thank you," he said, a bit perturbed, observing the buttons nearby which disproved his earlier message theory. "Now, I am happy to answer your questions as long as there are not any stupid ones."

The talking began again, though not nearly as loud this time. He could hear every question of course, so instead of waiting for them all to be repeated one by one, he simply answered them. "I'm the Doctor, no I don't have a medical degree, yes I'm brilliant, possibly, I'm not sure, there's nothing wrong with my bow tie, I haven't seen it yet, and why would you even ask me that question?" Felicity had piped up with her own question about the color of his socks in the middle of his sentence. She covered her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing aloud.

"Doctor," Raston said, approaching the podium. "To be contrite, we have no idea what we're dealing with. A group of civilians have disappeared while investigating this crash. And if you're really an expert, then perhaps you can help us."

"That's what I said! No one ever listens to me," he replied, looking around for a chair and finding nothing. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to see the message that you got from the spacecraft."

"How did you know we got a message?" one of the women demanded, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Because," he said, raising a finger knowingly. "The pause button on the podium is flashing." He looked to Raston, who flushed, slightly embarrassed. "May I?"

Raston nodded, gesturing to the holoscreen behind the Doctor. The play button was pressed and he turned around. The video played. Felicity had never seen the creatures before, but she'd heard about them. Terrible stories of death and destruction. The Doctor had only told her about them once, but once was enough.

"Daleks," he whispered. "They landed here." He watched the video over and over again. There was no mistaking them. They were the Daleks from his time on Earth with Prime Minister Churchill. And Amy. The white, yellow and red Daleks were missing, but he knew where they were. Or rather, he remembered where they had been. They must have split up. That sort of made sense, in a way. Three Daleks could easily plan the Pandorica while the other two were out rebuilding the species. The other three Daleks must have built or stolen another ship. The ship that these two had was the only ship with the Progenitor Device, after all. They were stuck with it in that respect. And his luck wasn't good enough to hope that it had been irreversibly damaged in the crash.

"High Council of Babylon," the Doctor said quietly, addressing the whole group. He turned to face them again, but locked his eyes on Raston instead. "I need you to look after her."

"What! Oh no you don't, I'm coming with you," she said firmly.

"They're Daleks," he said, enunciating the word as if it was a piece of trash.

"I'm not afraid of them," she lied.

"Well you should be," he said, suddenly pacing about. He made circuits around the podium, nervous and full of rage, tapping a hand against his leg repeatedly in the same pattern. He turned to Raston. "You need to evacuate your people. They have to leave this city, this whole planet if you can."

"What? Why?" one of the men demanded. "You called those things Daleks, what's a Dalek?"

"A Dalek is anger," he replied, his voice lowering in volume. "A Dalek is death and destruction and malice. A Dalek lives to kill anything that is not Dalek. All creatures not Dalek, regardless of species, must perish."

"But why?"

"Because it honestly believes they should die," Felicity answered softly, repeating what the Doctor had once told her. A few of the Council members turned to look at her, then shifted their worried gazes back to the Doctor.

"We have no way to evacuate the entire city aside from their own personal vehicles, even if we had enough time to do it. The ensuing traffic jam would just make everything worse," Raston said, running a hand nervously through his hair.

"Doctor," Felicity said, a question coming to her mind. "If the Daleks are here and they killed those people, why haven't they come to the city yet? I mean, it would be logical to assume that a settlement of some sort would be nearby, if they did see and kill the people."

The Doctor paused a moment, considering her question, then launched into an explanation. "If they did in fact kill those civilians, which I have to mention is very likely what happened, they should have been here by now, unless they... can't." He thought a moment. "You said the ship crashed. If the ship crashed, then the only plausible explanation for why it did so was that it had no power or it was damaged. No way to keep it in the sky."

"So... the Daleks have no power to their damaged ship, but that doesn't explain why they themselves aren't here," Felicity said, watching the Doctor pace about, thinking. Pacing always helped him think, but watching him gave her a headache more times than not.

He stopped, then turned to look at her. "I have to go. I need to investigate the crash site."

"You are not going without me," she said, giving him a look that said he would have to shoot her to keep her here.

"I'll do it if I have to," he warned.

"No you won't," she said, crossing her arms. He always threatened to take her back to the TARDIS and lock her in, but he never did it. She used to look so much like Amy when she did that, but recently she had been looking more and more like her own person, rather than a clone of her red-haired mother.

He was quiet for a moment. "Alright, you win, let's go."


	8. Chapter 7

"You really should go back," the Doctor said to the red-head who was stalking along in the forest beside him. They had run to the north forest, where the group of civilians had disappeared. The Doctor had assumed that the group was rather small, but it was in fact six people. The authorities had been informed by the rest of the group, who had been left at the outskirts of the city. There had to be a reason that the Daleks weren't on the attack.

Felicity shook her head. "You might need my help."

"I do more often than not, but that's not the point," he responded softly. They were nearing the crash site and the Doctor crept closer, sonic screwdriver at the ready. It was just the two of them, though several members of the civilian group had offered to accompany them. The Doctor wouldn't permit it, though more than one of them made a jab at Felicity's presence. He'd ignored them and walked off.

The crashed ship was little more than a crater in the ground. The Progenitor machine was lying in the open, barely scratched, just as he feared. Shrapnel was everywhere, embedded in both trees and dirt. Parts of the ship were still smoldering, throwing dark smoke into the air. The trees were only spared fire by the fact that it had rained very recently. The Doctor looked around carefully, but saw no movement. He led Felicity to the left, circling around the wreckage under cover of the trees. Felicity was breathing harder than usual, her heart pounding in her chest. She was frightened, but she wouldn't let the Doctor face them alone. Besides, she felt safer with him than without him.

They stepped behind a tree and peered around it. The two Daleks were sitting, unmoving in the daylight. The Doctor could see the corpses of the six civilians strewn about the ground, in the middle of running away in terror. He felt a rush of anger, but shoved it away for now. Felicity spotted the bodies and the Doctor saw a look of sadness spread over her face and into her eyes. He took her hand to reassure her. She looked at him and nodded.

"Why are they just sitting there?" she questioned, refusing to drop his hand.

"I don't know, it doesn't make-" he paused suddenly, then flew into frenzied whispers. "The ship crashed because it had no energy to keep it in the sky, that's what they're doing here, so what if they have no energy either? They're completely drained of energy, but how?"

"They must have used it all on something," she reasoned. "A ship suddenly falling from the sky, did they use an emergency temporal shift on the whole thing?" She had paid very close attention to the Doctor's lesson about the Daleks.

"Of course!" he hissed, hitting himself in the forehead. "At the opening of the Pandorica, the Daleks had ships upon ships, they must have created thousands of Daleks and then split up. And that's why they have no power. They used all of it to create an army for the Pandorica."

"But you said they had no power before, how did they get the power to create thousands of those Daleks? And why would they suddenly drain all of the power from their ship if they could get energy elsewhere?" The Doctor had briefly mentioned the Pandorica once before, mostly the part where her Mum had brought him back. She had had a flash of pride, knowing that her mother was the one who had brought back the greatest man in the universe.

"I don't know," he said, irritated that he really didn't. "I hate it when I don't know."

"Hang on, what are those things?" Felicity raised her free hand and pointed. There were rectangular panels sticking out of the Daleks, all face up and angled toward-

"The sun!" the Doctor exclaimed, almost speaking loudly enough for the Daleks to hear him. "Those are solar panels, they're using the light to recharge themselves. That's why they haven't attacked yet! They used up all of their collected energy to kill those people, they need to fuel up before they can do anything else."

She crouched behind a bush to the Doctor's right, watching the blue and orange Daleks soak up every last photon they could get. "Solar energy takes a while, though, doesn't it? At least it did on Earth."

"If we're lucky, we have ten minutes," he replied quietly, still watching the metal death traps.

"So... Won't they be searching for a new power source?" She could hear her heart beating in her ears.

"The city of Babylon" he said, quietly. "They can use it, absorb all its stored energy, and continue to fuel the Progenitor Device. More and more Daleks," he said distractedly, looking around and taking in every last detail of the crashed ship, moving his head around like a child trying to peek over something that was blocking its vision. "However," he added. "If we can get to the power station in the center of the city before they reach its outskirts, we can disconnect the generators from everything else. That will force them to come to the source rather than taking the electricity directly from a TV or a socket or whatever these people use to power their... things."

"So we just leave them here?" she asked, furrowing her eyebrows at him.

"Well I can't exactly kill them with my bow tie, now can I?" he answered with an impertinent tone.

"I suppose not."

"Then let's go." They traveled back the way they came and once again into the city, Felicity finally dropping the Time Lord's hand, sensing his rising frustration and anger. He could not let them kill any more people. No more. Never again.

xxxxxxxxxx

Exactly seven minutes later, the Doctor threw open the doors to the High Council's meeting room. All members were still present and they stood immediately, waiting for his report. Raston was the only one who spoke. "What news do you bring us, Doctor?"

"Listen very carefully," he began, addressing the whole room. "I need you to contact all of the news stations you can, broadcast a message that everyone needs to take shelter, get inside buildings, hide, do whatever you can, just don't be out in the open. Raston," he said, turning to the Head of the Council, the man's name generating endless amusement and memories. "I need you to take us to your power station, whatever it is that you use to power the city, a generator, a huge fan, doesn't matter what it is, just take us there now!"

"But I don't understand-"

"You don't need to understand, you need to do as I say!" The Doctor turned back to the entrance and Felicity followed him. He paused, then looked over his shoulder at Raston, who hadn't moved an inch.

"Doctor," he spoke with an authoritative tone. "These are our people."

The Doctor made a noise of frustration and ran a hand down his face. "The Daleks need energy, electricity. They can get it from anywhere, so we have to shut down the power and disconnect everything. Alright?" His red-haired companion elbowed him in the side.

"He knows what he's doing," Felicity added, speaking to the Council Head in a soothing voice. "He doesn't want any more people to die and neither do I. We want to help, but we don't have a lot of time. So please."

Raston nodded. "Fine, out the door and take a left." He turned to the other Council members. "All of you, contact the news stations, just like they said. And quickly!" He followed the Doctor outside, robe trailing behind him as an afterthought.

xxxxxxxxxx

A hovercar was fun, Felicity decided, but she much preferred the TARDIS, even with the ever present turbulence. They pulled up to the building and the Doctor jumped out of the car before it had even stopped moving. Felicity followed directly after him and Raston had grumpily parked the car before going inside.

The Doctor was arguing with one of the technicians upon Raston's arrival. "Good! Raston, please inform this man that I am not trying to sabotage the city."

Raston sighed. "He isn't." The Head of the Council pulled out his holoID, confirming his identity. "It is imperative that we shut this place down immediately. Doctor, can we send all of these employees home? If the Daleks are indeed headed this way, it would be wise."

"Yes, good, do that, send them all home and out of my way!" The Doctor was off and running, Felicity on his heels. She turned back and gave a bit of an apology wave to Raston before they burst into the main control room.

A man's voice came over the intercom overhead, demanding that all employees evacuate the building and return home, regardless of rank or position. "Override code 1234," the voice said. It seemed to work. All of the employees were trying to shoo the Doctor and Felicity out, but the Doctor flashed the psychic paper at them and that seemed to stop their blathering.

The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and began taking readings of everything around the giant room. Generators lined the wall, with lines that trailed into the ceiling, likely into the next room where the storage containers were held. The room was rather warm and Felicity fanned herself with a hand. The Doctor spotted a central computer and gestured to it with a bow. "Alright Felicity dear, time to work your magic."

She grinned and cracked her knuckles. Felicity was already an excellent scientist, but she enjoyed Physics in particular. And computers. The chair in front of the screen was comfy. She took a brief moment to examine all of the controls, then set to work shutting down every electric thing in the building. They couldn't just disconnect everything like unplugging a toaster, everything would go insane and fly into emergency protocols and whatnot. The Doctor continued his pacing, taking odd readings here and there. It wasn't fast enough, they had to move faster.

Felicity read his mind. "Doctor," she said, typing away at the keyboard. "There's a manual override that will automatically shut down all working generators. I'm shutting down the reserve power from here, but the manual override is on that wall somewhere." She gestured to a wall behind the Doctor, which was covered with more buttons than he probably had in his closet, and that was saying something.

"I don't see it," he said, looking over the multitude of colored buttons.

She looked back again. "It's right next to your head!"

The Doctor looked everywhere. "I don't see it!"

"It's the big red one!" She looked over her shoulder again and sighed in exasperation. She stood from her seat and walked over to him, hitting the huge red button next to his head. She gave him a you-are-so-dumb-sometimes look, then sat back in her chair.

"...Oh. Thanks." He smiled nervously at her and twiddled his thumbs a bit.

"You know," she said, shutting down the backup generators. "When you're angry, you get really grumpy at people when it's not their fault. And then you get frustrated and miss very obvious things. Well... You do that regardless, but that's not the point."

He furrowed his brows, going back to scanning the room. Everything was shutting down or already there, but it still wasn't fast enough. And there was something very odd about this place, about the readings, something that he couldn't quite put his finger on. "Is this really the time to criticize?"

"There's always time for criticism," she replied cheerily, as all of the lights in the building shut off simultaneously. "You're like a teenager," she decided, turning on the torch that had been sitting under the console and pointed it at him. He made a face and she laughed. "I know the Daleks are dangerous, but there are only two this time. We can kill them." That sentence sounded strange to her. Killing was never on their agenda.

"I know, but that's not the problem. The problem is who they will kill before we kill them." The Doctor looked at her seriously. "In addition to all of the... discrepancies, which, by the way, I need to question them about, so don't put your master plan into action until they've been questioned."

"What master plan?"

"I thought you were coming up with the plan this time," he said, pulling cords and wires out of every place he could find, disconnecting everything. Their aim wouldn't be the generator room anymore, but the power storage room, where all of the backup electricity was stored away for a rainy day.

"Since when?" She held the torch in one hand and helped disconnect all of the wiring.

"Oh alright, I'll... not make up a plan, we don't need plans, plans take too much time." He suddenly crouched on the floor, finding what looked like a piece of plastic. He examined it closely, then tossed it over his shoulder. He dropped to the ground, ear to the floor. There was an odd sound coming from beneath them. It sounded like the banging of metal on metal. Metal... doors. And they were all closing. He tapped his hand on the floor.

Suddenly, the door burst open and Raston was there, breathing like he'd run a marathon. "They're in the city," he huffed. "They've been killing everyone they can find. At least ten are dead."

The Doctor stood, teeth clenched, and began pacing around. Felicity and Raston finished disconnecting everything and the three of them moved to the storage center of the plant, where they knew the Daleks would follow.

It was a huge room, filled with machines that Felicity had only seen in books. She had learned all sort of things from the library in the TARDIS, like how to disable a 45th century power plant, for example. The TARDIS seemed to focus on books that would help in dire situations, rather than fiction or fantasy. Turned out she was right on the money.

The Doctor ran around the room, sonic-ing everything he could find and talking to himself as he went. Raston was speaking hurriedly to Felicity, trying to figure out how they could destroy the Daleks from this room.

"If we re-route the stored electricity from all of these into one..." The Doctor inspected his sonic screwdriver for an answer. "It would obviously blow up, okay, never mind, different idea."

Felicity inspected each screen on the... well, they sort of looked like tankards, but she knew they were more like huge batteries. "Doctor," she said, a bit worried. "It look like all of these are... what?" She turned to Raston, her face angry. The Doctor was a bit surprised, but also curious. "This entire power plant is a front."

"What?" The Doctor looked at her as if she'd grown another head, then immediately ran to her side to inspect the machine.

"It's a front, look. All of these readings right here, they can't possibly be real. These... I don't even know what to call them, batteries? They aren't what they're supposed to be. Anyway, they're not built to hold this much electricity. Or energy, or anything. There's another, much larger machine storing more energy than all of these put together, and it seems like it's underground. There's something else here, something that he's not telling us."

The Doctor performed a different scan with the sonic screwdriver, then turned to Raston, who put his hands up defensively. There was a fire in the Time Lord's eyes that Felicity hadn't seen in quite a long time, ever since the Cybermen when she was fourteen. "An atomic bomb? Whose bright idea was that?" he demanded.

"It wasn't me," the man answered, defeated. "I'm only forty-seven." He fumbled to make up an answer that they would believe. The truth would dangerously impair the mission. "The city was meant to be built far away from the plant, it just sort of... Built itself around the plant instead," he lied.

"So they all flocked to the plant? That doesn't make any sense. Why would they do that?" The Doctor demanded.

"For protection," Felicity answered. "Or maybe they didn't know. You just scanned it, you know what it is."

"That doesn't mean it should even exist," he hissed angrily. "Not here, not with people."

"Maybe that's their last resort," Felicity said, watching the Doctor carefully. "Sacrifice the city to save the planet."

"How many cities are within range of here?" the Doctor demanded, looking at Raston angrily. "How many?"

"None," the man answered hollowly. "Babylon is the only one within range of the blast."

The Doctor paced. "But that doesn't make any sense. How could any enemy know to come to this city specifically? What would force them to come here instead of going to any other city on this planet? What's here?"

"LIFEFORMS DETECTED."

Felicity heard the metal voice coming from the lobby of the "power plant". She grabbed Raston and pulled him to the back of the room, behind the Doctor, who had his sonic screwdriver out, for all the good it would do him against two Daleks... who had no shield integrity. Ah. He stood in plain sight as the blue and orange Daleks appeared before them.

"DOCTOR," the blue Dalek spoke. "WE MEET AGAIN." Their metal casings were dented and damaged, but it seemed that both creatures inside were alive and well.

"Unfortunately for you, it's going to be the last time," the Doctor said, watching them both curiously. They hadn't even attempted or threatened to shoot anyone, including the two he was protecting behind him. "You're out of power."

"A TEMPORARY PROBLEM," the orange Dalek insisted. They were both eying the power cells, but the Doctor was standing in their way.

"So the two of you are here and the other three are conveniently thousands of years in the past, planning my defeat," he said with a slightly smug undertone. He would not give them the satisfaction of knowing that he had been trapped in the Pandorica for a short period of time. "Why did your ship crash?"

"IT IS UNIMPORTANT," the blue Dalek declared.

"It's extremely important to me, actually," the Doctor replied, twirling the sonic screwdriver around in one of his hands. "I'll make you a deal," he said. "Tell me what I want to know and I'll let you take as much power as you like from there bad boys." He patted the metal cylinder next to him fondly.

"YOU LIE," the orange Dalek said.

"Ah well, it was worth a try," he replied, still twirling the screwdriver. Against her better judgment, Felicity stood slowly and walked to the Doctor's side, but he chose not to comment on her movement. "Do you know what I think? I think that your shields are too weak to resist a prodding from my sonic screwdriver. The right frequency can do the most amazing things Like make Daleks bleed."

The creatures were silent. Finally one of them spoke. "WE WERE ATTACKED," the orange Dalek said, refusing to move an inch.

"Attacked? Attacked by what, exactly?" The Doctor looked as if he was examining them from behind a Dalek-proof glass window.

"DARKNESS," the blue one replied simply.

"Darkness? What does that mean, 'darkness'?"

"THE DARKNESS FROM THE DAWN OF THE UNIVERSE," the orange Dalek said. "THE DARKNESS WHICH IS FEARED BY ALL AND DEFEATED BY NONE."

"Wait, you're telling me that there's something that the Daleks _actually_ fear?" The Doctor was incredulous. This made no sense. Daleks had no emotions, though some of them appeared to fear him.

"THE DALEKS ARE PROGRAMMED TO AVOID THE DARKNESS," the orange one replied, clarifying his previous statement.

"Avoid? You mean you ran away?" The Doctor was even more confused now. What in the whole of creation would make the Daleks run away? Even if they weren't running in fear, they were still _running_. Running away from... something.

"DALEK WEAPONRY CANNOT HARM THE DARKNESS. WE HAD TO FLEE TO PRESERVE OUR SPECIES," the blue Dalek said, sounding impatient with them.

"What is it?" Felicity demanded, holding on to the Doctor's right arm, trying to keep herself calm more than assuring him that she was still there, though that was part of it. He had himself between her and them, but a well aimed shot to the head would still kill her.

The Daleks were both silent, like they were afraid to speak its name aloud.

"What is it? _Tell me_!" The Doctor demanded harshly. His voice was so loud that it hurt Felicity's ears.

The blue Dalek finally spoke, "FEW RACES HAVE A NAME FOR IT, BUT YOU KNOW IT AS THE NIGHTMARE CHILD."


	9. Chapter 8

I dedicate the plot bunny at the end of this chapter to Jennyrated Anomaly, because she makes me giggle.

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you get lots of presents!

* * *

"What?"

The Doctor spun around and found Raston looking at him strangely. They had both spoken the exact same thing at the exact same time, in the exact same way.

"The Nightmare Child is free?" Raston asked, cautiously stepping forward to stand next to Felicity. He stared hard at the Daleks, trying to determine if they were lying or not.

"The Nightmare Child is time locked, imprisoned in the Time War," the Doctor declared, still looking at Raston.

"Then how could they have been attacked by it?" Felicity questioned, watching the two pepperpots closely. She didn't really know what they were talking about, but she made a point to pay attention. The Doctor never spoke of his history to her; she knew very little of his planet or his species.

"THE NIGHTMARE CHILD DESTROYED OVER HALF OF OUR NEWLY CREATED ARMY. WE FLED TO PRESERVE OUR SPECIES." The lights on the blue Dalek's head flashed on and off as it spoke.

"And how do you know what the Nightmare Child is?" The Doctor asked Raston, who was looking at him strangely, as if he'd never seen him before.

"There is only one species that calls it by that name," he answered. "Doctor, are you a Time Lord?"

"What? Of course I'm a Time Lord, do I look like a human?" He asked, almost indignantly. Felicity opened her mouth to say yes, but he put his hand over her lips before she could speak, earning him a glare from the ginger woman. "How do you know that?"

Raston's face changed from fear to recognition. "Doctor, there's something very important that you need to know." He held out his arm. The Doctor and Felicity watched as it opened, almost like a door, to reveal a screen with many buttons and gizmos.

"You're a cyborg?" The Doctor all but yelled. Raston immediately scanned him to confirm his species. "That's important information!" He suddenly realized that his hand was still on Felicity's face and he dropped it.

"I am not a cyborg," Raston said immediately. "I am an android, one hundred percent machinery, built with fake memories and fake emotions. There is a reason that the cities of this world were built around the power plants."

"You mean there's more of them?" Felicity asked, incredulous. "Every city on this entire planet is like this?" The Daleks were silent, but Felicity was watching them out of the corner of her eye.

"Yes, but there's something you don't understand," he insisted. "This planet has no humans on it."

"What are you talking about? There are hundreds of cities on this planet!" The Doctor said, like Raston was trying to make a fool out of him.

"THE ROBOT IS SPEAKING THE TRUTH," the orange Dalek said. "SCANS OF THE CITY INDICATE NO HUMAN LIFE OTHER THAN THE FEMALE."

"But how can that be?" Felicity stared at Raston. "We saw all of those people out there, we saw them! They were out spending time together, shopping, human things!"

"That's what we're programmed to do after our task is complete," Raston explained hurriedly. "This entire planet is populated only by robots that are programmed to keep up the pretense of a human civilization. In reality, we are all soldiers of the same army."

"But why? How does that even begin to make sense?" The Doctor asked, more confused than before.

"Because we have been here for more than a few hundred years, that's just what the official records say. In reality, we have been here for almost three thousand," he said, watching the faces of his friend change in confusion.

"You're not forty-seven, are you Raston?" Felicity questioned.

The android shook his head. "We were placed on this planet for a purpose. All of these cities, all of these power plants-"

"THE PROGENITOR DEVICE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED," the blue Dalek yelled suddenly.

"What?" All three of the humanoids snapped their heads in the direction of the two Daleks, who had been waiting oh-so patiently for their conversation to end.

"Oh no you don't, that's a lie, I saw your still little Progenitor machine, it's powerless," the Doctor approached the blue Dalek, his face inches away from its eyestalk.

"THE PROGENITOR DEVICE CAN ACQUIRE POWER FROM THE SUN JUST AS DALEKS CAN," the orange Dalek retorted smugly. "IT BEGINS!"

xxxxxxxxxx

"I don't think I've ever run so fast in my whole life!" Felicity gasped, leaning against a tree. They had booked it out of the power plant as fast as their legs could carry them. Raston's car had been a good getaway vehicle, but they could see the newly created Daleks descending on the city from afar, looking for them. The TARDIS wasn't far away; she could spot it through the trees, waiting for their return.

"Alright you," the Doctor said to Raston. "Start talking!"

"What do you want to know?" His protocols stated that only members of the Time Lord race were to be given information regarding their objective, the project they had been tending to since she had every android on this planet built and sent here.

"You said that this entire planet is populated with androids. Why?"

"We were sent here to construct a prison," Raston said, giving up the pretense of begin human, since he obviously needed no air and could therefore not be out of breath. "Upon the prison's completion, every android on the planet with the exception of the Council Heads were wiped clean of all memory, aside from internal protocols that would activate the androids as the planet's Army, on activation from the Councils. We then began our lives as a human civilization. That is why records indicate that we have only been here a few hundred years." He paused. "We had been informed that the Time War had been locked away. I had no idea that the Nightmare Child still roamed the stars."

"A prison, you said? I didn't see a prison anywhere," Felicity said, resting against a tree.

"The prison is located in the center of the planet," the android clarified.

"The center of the planet? You hollowed out an entire planet? That explains the three thousand years, but what could possibly warrant that desecration?" The Doctor was still rather confused, but a few pieces were slowly falling into place. It wouldn't be long before the Daleks found them in the woods; he gestured to Raston to pick up the pace on explaining.

"The prison," he answered, as if I was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What's the prison for?" The Doctor clarified, looking to Raston as if he was going to start pacing circles around a tree at any moment. "Because I heard metal hitting metal, sounds coming from beneath the ground, did you authorize that?"

Raston nodded. "To protect the prison. It was built to contain the Nightmare Child," he said, watching the Doctor's expression change with every word.

"It was built to contain the Nightmare Child? The Nightmare Child is- Wait, hold on, no! I'm asking the wrong questions, who sent you here to build this prison?"

"She did," he answered.

"Who is 'she'?"

"I can't tell you. Protocol indicates that the identity of the Warden can only be given to the Guard."

"I don't care about stupid protocols!" the Doctor yelled, almost ready to bang his head against a tree. He began pacing to rid himself of the extra energy, tapping his hand against his leg in frustration.

"Can you at least tell us the name of the Guard?" Felicity asked.

Raston looked at her, then nodded. "The name of the guard is the one known as Theta Sigma."

"What?" The Doctor stopped short and turned around faster than most would have thought possible, his voice barely above a whisper. "Theta Sigma? But I'm Theta Sigma!"

"What? You're the Doctor," Felicity said, furrowing her eyebrows at him. How could he forget his own name?

"Theta Sigma was my name before I choose the Doctor, Time Lords choose their own names when they graduate from the Academy, until then we have a name we are known by for simplification purposes, it makes everything far more organized." He ran a hand down his face, running through the list of people in his head who knew that name. He continued his frustrated pacing. Felicity was a bit pleased with the Time Lord history lesson, though now was hardly the time to be asking for more information.

"There is a required password," Raston hinted. "The phrase is not part of our language, but the head of each city knows of it, in the event that the Guard should appear."

"Password, password..." He froze, realization flooding his features; they didn't know the word 'baby'. He turned to Raston immediately. "The password is jelly babies."

"Password accepted," the android confirmed, in a slightly more robotic voice than they were used to hearing from him.

"Tell me the name of the Warden," the Doctor demanded, examining Raston with a scrutinizing stare. "I am Theta Sigma, now tell me the name of your creator!" A feeling was creeping up his spine. He knew the identity of the Warden, but he couldn't quite believe it.

"The Warden is known as the President," the android explained. "Lady President Romanadvoratrelundar."


	10. Chapter 9

They stood in silence for a very long time. The Doctor was the one to finally break it.

"Is she here?"

"What?" Raston watched as the Doctor slowly approached him, staring him straight in the eyes.

"Is she here?" the Time Lord repeated. He already knew the answer, but he could pretend that he didn't. Felicity was watching the exchange closely, the wind blowing far too gently for the danger that was all around them.

"No," Raston said slowly. "The Warden was the one who informed us that the Time War was to be time locked, but we didn't get the message until a few hundred years ago, after the prison had been completed. I didn't know that a member of your species had survived outside of it. We were instructed by the Warden-"

"Romana," he said softly.

"What?"

"Her name is Romana," he repeated. Felicity stood from her leaning position against the tree to take the Time Lord's hand. He didn't accept, nor did he push her away, but instead looked at her sadly. He was always sad, but it never showed on his face, not like this. She could almost feel the sorrow radiating from him. It was as bright as a star.

"Ah, yes. We were instructed by... Romana to create the prison that is in the center of the planet, for the purposes of containing the Nightmare Child. However, Romana said in her message that the creature was meant to be trapped in the Time War, though it had disappeared without a trace. Since the message, we have been living our lives as best we can."

"That doesn't make any sense," the Doctor stated. Romana had been the only Time Lord to know what he was going to do before he did it and still she had stayed behind to protect her people.

A brief, sudden memory flashed through his mind. He remembered watching Davros' ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child, when the sky was dark as blood. He remembered the instant when the ship could never have been retrieved, when every living thing on board was doomed. There had been a strange flash of light that had shown brighter than the twin suns, engulfing the sky and turning it to white fire. The creature had been there one moment, then it was gone. They had all assumed that it had temporarily retreated, but now he knew the truth. "_Dalek Caan..."_

He was silent for a moment, thinking. "The Nightmare Child is... We don't even know what it is, really; we just know that it's.. But if she designed the prison, then she must have worked out what the Nightmare Child really is-"

"LIFEFORMS DETECTED."

Felicity almost jumped out of her skin as a Dalek, whose color was not orange or blue, so she assumed it was a regular Dalek, descended from above them, aiming its gun at her head.

The Doctor quickly moved to stand between the Dalek and his two companions. "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE US, DOCTOR."

"I'm not even moving, you giant paperweight," he said, staring up at its eyestalk, anger simmering under his skin. The wind was still calm, trying to defy the charged atmosphere around them.

There was an odd sound to his right, like the shifting of gears and the arming of a weapon. "Stand back."

The Doctor's gaze drifted to Raston, who was standing beside him. His right arm had changed drastically; the Doctor recognized it as the weaponry that would eventually evolve into the type of weapon that a certain Captain chose to carry around. It looked odd, since it involved his entire arm literally opening up like deadly flower petals. It was an odd sight, especially to Felicity, to see the man that she had thought a human suddenly turn into what he claimed to be.

"Raston, don't!" Felicity was trying to pull him back, but he refused to budge. The Doctor hadn't moved a muscle either. He always viewed himself as the least important being in any situation like this. Everyone else was always more important to him. She understood his reasoning, but she didn't have to like it.

"Raston, you don't want to do that. It can kill you in an instant," the Doctor said. He could hear its cry of 'Exterminate!' already.

"I'd better make this shot count then!" His husband would have to forgive him.

"No!" The Doctor lunged at him, but it was too late. He fired.

Felicity screamed. The blast flew into the sky and the android's body fell, lifeless. The remains of his head drifted like snow onto the ground in front of her. The Doctor stared, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"A FUTILE EFFORT TO REMAIN IN CONTROL OF ONE'S DEATH," the Dalek concluded, unmoved by the android's suicide. It aimed its gun at the Doctor. "EXTERMINATE!"

Suddenly, the body on the ground lit up like a Christmas tree, flashing red. The sound of a recording began playing from the android. "PROTOCOLS ENGAGED. SYSTEM ACTIVATION. ATOMIC DETONATION IN 60, 59, 58, 57, 56..."

"Detonation? He's going to blow up!" Felicity yelled, grabbing the Doctor's arm, eyes blurred with tears. "He's going to explode, Doctor! We have to go!" The Dalek scanned the body and took off for the sake of self preservation, meaning to inform the rest of the Daleks what exactly was actually happening. _"Coward."_

"He's not blowing up," The Doctor said as pain spread over his face, coming to the same conclusion as the fleeing Dalek did. "He's activated the bombs. All of them. Every single fake power plant across this planet has a bomb identical to the one we found in Babylon. Every android on this planet will be destroyed, along with the Daleks and any entrances to the prison. That was the metal sound I heard from beneath the ground, doors shutting the prison off from anything and everything."

"But why would they do that?" Felicity demanded, choking on her own voice.

"45, 44, 43, 42, 41..."

"It's the last resort," he said. "To keep the prison safe. It's the only thing that can keep the Nightmare Child caged, so that it doesn't destroy any other planets or civilizations. But this one is the price." He looked down at Raston's body. "Logically, they would never be programmed to attack their own kind. Therefore, any attack at all would be from an enemy, giving reason to set off the bombs. This planet barely has any animal life... Romana chose well." A look of sorrow graced his features. "Those bombs will take out everything, the Daleks, the Progenitor device, all of it. That Dalek went to inform the others, but by then it will be too late."

"26, 25, 24, 23..."

"Let's go," the Doctor said softly, turning away and heading for the TARDIS. "There's nothing we can do in twenty-three seconds." Felicity didn't budge an inch. She instead stood over Raston's body with tear-filled eyes. The Doctor turned back for her and she finally followed as the countdown hit eighteen.

xxxxxxxxxx

The planet below was dotted with craters. Felicity stood at the open TARDIS doors and watched the explosions. They were everywhere. She could see them from above, small and yet so very huge. The Doctor was behind her, fiddling with the controls. He didn't care to watch. He was busily doing scans on the planet's surface, confirming that there were no more Daleks and that they'd all perished in the explosion.

"Well he did it," the Time Lord confirmed. "No paperweights left."

"Yeah," she replied hollowly. He approached her and gently shut the TARDIS doors. She didn't protest, just wiped her face dry. It was too dangerous to go back now. The Doctor had mentioned something about the prison shutting itself down and emergency protocols, but she was only half listening.

"At least he didn't feel it," she said, looking up at him with glassy eyes. He smiled sadly and hugged her. She always did this. It was one of the many reasons he enjoyed her company. They broke apart and Felicity sauntered over to the far stairs, which had become her favorite place to sit when the TARDIS was stationary.

The Doctor ascended the few steps in front of him, aiming to go anywhere that wasn't here, but he couldn't quite reach out for the panel. He instead tapped a hand on his leg, as if trying to decide something. After a long moment, he spoke. "She was my friend."

Felicity raised her head from the spot on the floor she had been so intently staring at. "Who?"

"Romana," he said, watching the girl's reaction closely. There was a sadness in his eyes that was unmistakable. Occasionally he turned into an open book, with yellowed pages written in invisible ink.

"I thought so," she answered. He was finally volunteering information about his planet, but she wished that it wasn't under such sad circumstances. He was always so sad. He didn't need any more reminders than he already possessed. "He said she was the President?"

"She was. For a while, anyway, until Rassilon not-so-quietly took his position back in the middle of the War."

"Who is Rassilon?"

They sat floating in space for hours and he told her about his planet. He told her of all they had accomplished and lost. He told her about the Time War and the Time Lock, the Academy, the Time Lords, Gallifrey, the Daleks, the Nightmare Child, and his terrible choice.

She had almost died today. To a Dalek, of all things. There was a part of him that was unsure about her, not because she had ever done anything wrong, of course. Her timeline was still as unstable as the day he'd met her. He had no idea if she could influence other timelines, but he had no intention of ever letting her try. She was still unaware that she possessed this strange trait and he wasn't about to tell her. Such an ability could be easily abused, if not by her, then certainly by others. She knew the dangers of messing with fixed points in time, but that didn't mean she wouldn't do it anyway if someone or something she loved was threatened.

Felicity listened quietly, only asking a question here and there. Mostly, she let him talk. Before, she wasn't entirely sure why he wouldn't speak of his planet. Now she knew. She briefly wondered just how he dealt with the burden, but immediately answered her own question. A thought flitted across her mind, wondering just how many people he would have to save before the guilt lifted even a fraction.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Doctor, I want to go home."

The Time Lord's head snapped up from where it had been busily spotting the precise buttons to press to take them to their next destination. It had been only a day since Mesopotamia and he had feared that this was going to happen. She had never asked to go home before. He knew she missed her parents, but it would entail so many explanations and stories at this point and he knew she didn't want to deal with their disapproving frowns. He didn't want to deal with their disapproving slugs to the face.

"Okay," he said, changing course by reaching across to spin a whirligig. A million things whizzed through his head, all having to do with the words 'don't' and 'go'. Instead, he set course for Leadworth. "Home. I can do that."

"Not stay home," she clarified. "I just want to call and talk to Mum."

"With my doctorate in jiggery-pokery, I can fix your mobile so you can call her from here," he suggested, inexplicably relieved, pausing in the flipping of switches and the pressing of buttons. He acted like he wanted a response to the doctorate comment, but she didn't dignify him with so much as a giggle.

"It's back in the school," she said a bit sheepishly. "I think it's in my locker."

"The TARDIS has a phone too, you know," he said, then immediately thought about it. "Then again, perhaps that's not such a good idea. She would expect you to be calling from your own mobile." Felicity nodded. "I could always re-route the call using the TARDIS's-"

"Home," she insisted gently.

"Right," he said, pulling a lever to his right, losing yet again. "Home."

xxxxxxxxxx

"Hello?" Amy's voice was warm and familiar on the other line.

"Hi Mom," Felicity said quietly. The Doctor had parked the TARDIS in a little used janitor's closet inside the school. Felicity had done quite a bit of sneaking around, getting to her locker and then creeping to the loo to phone Amy. As it was, she was trying not to cry. It had been four years since she'd heard her mother's voice, after all.

"Felicity, what are you doing calling me from school? You're going to get in trouble! Do I have to take your phone away from you?"

She _would_ say that. "No Mum, I'm sorry, I just..." She trailed off. The bathroom was not the proper place for a phone conversation, she decided. It echoed in here. She hated places that echoed; they always felt far too empty. "I thought I felt sick, but I'm okay now."

Felicity could hear the change in her mother's voice, now laced with worry. "Are you sure you're alright? Your voice sounds different. Do you have an upset stomach? I can come get you if you don't feel well."

"No, I'm fine. Mr. Richards just announced an English test on the stuff we've been studying, I guess I got nervous," she lied. Nervous about a test. She could fight aliens on other planets in the future but she couldn't come up with a better excuse than that.

"Well alright, just get back to class, okay? Don't let your teachers see you talking on your phone."

"Okay, thanks Mum. I love you." She wiped her eyes of the tears that were silently threatening to fall.

"I love you too, Liss. See you when you get home."

Her mother sounded so... normal. The woman had no clue whatsoever about where her daughter had been for the last four years. Felicity wanted to say more, so much more, but kept herself quiet. "See you. Bye."

"Bye." Click.

xxxxxxxxxx

Felicity snuck back to the TARDIS silently, mobile in hand. She had been worried that he would leave her and was relieved when the blue box was still sitting comfortably in the closet. The Doctor didn't say a word when she walked back in, just began pulling this and that, getting the TARDIS ready for takeoff.

"I didn't tell her," Felicity said finally, putting the phone in her pocket.

"I didn't think you would," he replied with a knowing smile.

She smiled back, scaling the steps. "Alright," she announced. "Let's get off this rock!"


	11. Chapter 10

I do apologize for the long wait in between chapters. The holidays always drag me off track of things.

* * *

I never did like rocks. They were always so boring, so observant of laws like gravity. The Doctor once again took me away from the big rock I lived on. We traveled to many more places and all of them were so beautiful. When I was 19, I spent so much time in the TARDIS's library, reading the seemingly endless number of books that she supplied me with. I became proficient in a few different alien languages, but I had no interest in learning more than just those few, since I kept getting them all confused. There were many more interesting things to do, like rescuing a group of humans who were stranded on a moon 4 galaxies away in the 85th century. Their ship had malfunctioned and they had no way to repair it. We took them back home and one of the women tried to kiss the Doctor in thanks. I refused to help him get away and it was definitely one of the funniest things I've ever seen. We traveled far into the past and I met Japanese Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa at the Battle of Sekigahara in the year 1600. We managed to rescue him from being killed by a Macra, which was stranded on Earth and terrorizing the countryside. We landed on so many space stations that I lost count. He told me the story of his third face, being stuck on Earth with Bessie by the hand of the Time Lords.

When I was 20, we ran into an annoying group of Judoon on Altraxis Minor in the 37th century. They tried to arrest the Doctor for who knows what reason. We only got away because the Doctor tricked them by accusing someone else of a much greater crime than he, and the Judoon were too absorbed in detaining the supposed criminal to notice the both of us escaping quietly. I watched the people of New Earth landing on the surface of the planet for the very first time. We took a trip to the biggest restaurant in the universe, which served food that was biologically tailored to each customer to produce the most delicious food possible. The Doctor's meal was unsurprisingly fish fingers and custard. We landed on an asteroid made entirely of diamond, protected by a nearby planet so that no one would try to steal it. He took me to a planet called Messaline, where a colony of Hath and humans had once lived. It had since then bloomed into a prosperous civilization, one with a very interesting patron saint. We actually ran into the Graske from six years ago and he introduced us to his family. The Doctor took me to Barcelona, the planet, not the city, but he wouldn't let me keep one of their adorable noseless dogs as a pet, no matter how much I begged and whined. I once asked to go to the planet Felspoon. He said nothing. We didn't go, but he never explained why. I didn't press him for information, of course. Not when he looked so inexplicably sad.

When I was 21, the Doctor finally agreed to teach me how to pilot the TARDIS. It took quite a long time and I practiced every day. I asked him about the manual, since there had to be one, and he said something about tossing it into a supernova. I accidentally flew us into a starstorm, which was the middle of two supernovas exploding at the same time. Needless to say, I let him take over for a while after that and retreated to the library. We flew to a planet called Luyaria, where a wonderful festival was held every year to celebrate the resident species' moon goddess. They had elaborate outfits and way too many funny hats to count. We traveled to the year 1234 and helped to restore Erik Eriksson, or Erik "XI" the King of Sweden, to his throne after we discovered that the usurper Knut Långe was actually a vespiform. We took a holiday to the Leisure Hive of the Argolins, which had been rebuilt and was now prospering, much to the Doctor's excitement. He told me of the time that the TARDIS exploded, how he had yet to discover who had caused it and what the phrase "Silence Will Fall" really meant. I looked it up in the library, but I couldn't find a thing. He looked it up in the library, since I must have missed something, but he couldn't find a thing either. Neither of us were surprised.

When I turned 22, the Doctor showed me the Medusa Cascade, in all its splendid glory. He told me of the great battle for the universe that had taken place there, fighting against Davros, the Daleks, and the Reality Bomb. He once again explained the bit about Donna, finally filling in the cracks about the way he had lost her. He told me about Rose, Martha and Sarah Jane. Over the years, he had shown me several of his faces and I finally got to see the rest of them, thanks to the TARDIS. I thought the Doctor was going to hit me when I made a side comment about the attractiveness of the one with the suit and spiky hair. We traveled across the universe to see the sunset on a planet with nine moons. I helped the Doctor dismantle a dimension cannon that a human in the 76th century was threatening to use to destroy the universe. We saved a planet that was suffering from a plague by destroying the machines that were manufacturing a type of bacteria, which were infecting the native species. The Doctor told me about the Shansheeth and how they'd faked his death, tricking Sarah Jane, Jo Grant and all of UNIT. We traveled to the year nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine on New Year's Eve. The Doctor showed me an amazing place with singing plants and flying manta rays. We traveled to every corner of the universe imaginable, seeing so many wonderful aliens and beautiful planets.

When I was 23, everything ended.


	12. Chapter 11

Trivia Bit - "Naka" means "Silence" in High Gallifreyan. Oh the delicious irony. And yes, I did watch the Doctor Who episodes that are referenced from here on. Go me.

* * *

"You know," Felicity said, pulling a lever on the TARDIS. "This thing is a lot more stable when you let me help you drive it."

"I like the turbulence," the Doctor declared, slightly childish. "It lends to the charm." He was examining the screen in front of his face closely. They were currently parked on New Earth, after a very interesting visit with the Face of Boe. It was earlier in the Face's time stream; he hadn't imparted his final message to the Doctor's previous face yet. The Doctor couldn't help overhearing the rumors of a new drug being developed. "Bliss" was meant to be on the market by the end of the year. He told Felicity the story and they left before he made a decision to do something very Doctor-ish and very time-altering.

"Oh yes, like we don't have enough of that around already," she said precociously. She pressed a button to the Doctor's left and the engine whirred to life.

The Time Lord spun around to face her and lifted a finger to her face as though he was going to make a very valid point, but he ended up looking confused instead. She raised an eyebrow and twisted a knob cheekily. "Oh let me do it," he said, throwing up his arms grumpily and moving around the console away from her, tapping on the console along the way, yet another odd quirk that he'd developed over the years. She put her hands up in silent defeat and let him do as he pleased with the controls. The familiar sound of the TARDIS was their reward. It had yet to get on her nerves, even a little bit.

She watched him move around the console like a busybody trying to avoid the one thing that they absolutely had to get done that day. She knew that leaving all of those people to die killed him on the inside. Just a little bit more of the light, faded away.

The screen to her right flashed and she pulled it around, frowning in confusion. Her flamingly red hair was up in a ponytail, something that her mother had done for her when she was a little kid. She'd been putting it up quite a bit as of late. She hadn't visited home since that day with her cell phone in the bathroom at school. She didn't see the point now, really; she could go see her parents again on the exact day she'd left. She would simply be significantly older and they would be significantly more angry. "Doctor, I don't understand this reading."

The Doctor approached the screen, reading the symbols and becoming just as confused as his companion. "But that's impossible," he said, his eyes widening. "All but one of those were destroyed... But we're nowhere near Earth!" He frantically began pulling levers, pressing buttons, and generally being very difficult to follow around the console. Not that that was any different from any other day.

"All but one of what?" Felicity questioned, still looking at the screen in confusion. She held on to the railing behind her, raising her voice over the engine. "According to the TARDIS, it's a small hole in the universe, a hole that isn't getting any bigger or smaller. It's sucking in matter like a black hole, but no energy is being let off like there would be if it was indeed a black hole. I don't understand."

"It is completely impossible, yet we seem to be staring right at it," he replied as the TARDIS whizzed through the Time Vortex at top speed. He latched onto the console. "It's leaving a trail, a focal point as a source."

"I've never seen anything like this before. What is it?" She looked to him for an answer, almost falling over in the meantime. "And while I'm thinking about it, where are we going?"

"It's a CVE," he answered, looking at her with a smile of confusion and wonder, that look he got when something amazing happened. "We're going somewhere impossible."

xxxxxxxxxx

The TARDIS landed with a slight jerk and the Doctor parked it hurriedly. He was down the stairs and outside in an instant, looking around. The planet was green and lush, a city looming in the distance. "917 years of space travel and I still find something to surprise me," he said in wonder. Felicity stepped out of the machine, shutting the door behind her. There were trees on three sides of them, a forest opening up to the beginnings of what looked like dirt roadways.

"Doctor, where are we?" She inhaled the sweet air, feeling a sneeze coming on. She held it back just in time for the Doctor to take off running in the direction of the city. She looked after him and sighed in exasperation. "Why is it always running with you?"

"It's good for the body!" he called over his shoulder with a smile. She huffed and ran after him.

xxxxxxxxxx

Felicity arrived at the city gates shortly after the Doctor, who was looking around the place like a kid in a candy store, talking to himself. "The architecture is a bit different, more color this time around, an odd color, but I suppose it's better than no color at all."

"This time around?" the red head questioned, catching her breath from what had turned into a race to get here first. Curse him and his binary vascular system; it always gave him an unfair advantage in races.

The Doctor rushed into the city, looking at all of the residents and buildings. There weren't a lot of either, but they were all clothed the same: all in black and yellow robes. He rushed ahead, Felicity following him grudgingly. She wanted to know where exactly they were, but her designated driver wasn't exactly offering information at the moment. The city was a neat place with simple buildings, though it lacked the foliage that was present outside the city limits. He Doctor turned a corner and saw what he knew was the main building, also simple in design but larger than all of the others. It also had a huge satellite dish protruding from the roof. He ran off toward it without a moment's hesitation. Felicity sighed.

She vaguely remembered reading something about a place that looked similar to this, according to a book in the TARDIS's library. It had been a planet colonized by mathematicians, but the planet had been destroyed along with a decent sized chunk of the universe. There had been very little information in the book, barely more than a mention of the dead planet before it had moved on to bigger and better things, in its own humble opinion.

The Doctor burst into the building, marveling in its clean simplicity. It had a foyer, along with hallways that branched off in a few directions. A few of the humanoids they had seen were speaking to each other in the foyer. Felicity noted that they all possessed white hair, but this mental note was overshadowed by the Doctor, who immediately approached the closest man, a man who had just broken off from the group. "Excuse me, I believe I'm lost, could you tell me where I am?"

The man turned to the dark-haired humanoid in the tweed jacket and bow tie. "Um, yes, I can. You are in our capital city, Naka."

"No, I mean I'm _really_ lost, I don't know the name of this planet," the Time Lord pressed, breezing over the irony of the capital's name. Felicity running up behind him, breathing deeply. She briefly toyed with the idea of getting him a collar and leash, if only to keep him from running off without her.

The robed man gave the Doctor a look like he was crazy, then responded hesitantly. "You're presently on the planet of New Logopolis."

"I knew it!" The Doctor yelled happily, making the man in the robe jump. "Logopolitans! Are you descendants of the originals?"

The man furrowed his brows in confusion. "Yes, we are. It has been five hundred years since our native planet was destroyed. We have since then colonized this one."

"Of course you have, look at it!" The Doctor crowed with a spin, then suddenly turned back to the robed man in confusion. "But I was there when your planet crumbled into dust, how did you manage to survive?"

The man was very confused at this point. "Sir, I don't think you were there when- Never mind," he added, noting the Doctor's disapproving frown, as though the Time Lord couldn't possibly understand why the Logopolitan man didn't believe him. "If it's information you're looking for, I can request a meeting for you with the Monitor."

"The Monitor! Yes please, I would like to speak with the Monitor," the Doctor said, poking the robed man in the chest while enunciating every word. The man gave him another odd look, then disappeared through a doorway. The Doctor turned excitedly to Felicity, frown gone. "The Monitor!"

"I thought Logopolis was destroyed? And you didn't tell me you were there," she added, thinking that perhaps she could brush up on her history while they were here. He didn't tell her a lot of things. Unless she asked, of course, so she had long since gotten in the habit of inquiring. She wrote everything down either way.

"Unfortunately," he said, smiling at her and rocking back on his heels impatiently. "That's when I met my fifth face."

"Oh? Which one was that?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "You expect me to remember?"

She squinted her eyes incredulously at him, head drawn back like he was mad. "It's your face!"

"Faces are unimportant, Felicity. Did I forget to tell you that?" he asked, smiling innocently.

"You'd never say that and mean it in a trillion years," she declared. She felt like hitting him.

"Precisely, so don't listen to me. Ah ha!" The man had returned and was motioning for them both to follow him. Both time travelers went quickly, the man with a pleasant bounce in his step. Felicity glimpsed the joy on the Time Lord's face and couldn't help smiling herself. His grin was always infectious.

They passed through several corridors, all white and clean. The building seemed to be made out of a type of white rock. They turned a corner and walked out into a huge courtyard where several dozen of the Logopolitans were performing mathematical computations, each with their own abacus. She noted that none of them used a single computer, just their own brain power. It was fascinating.

The man, whose name they now knew was Kraven, introduced them to the Monitor. "It is my understanding that this planet is foreign to you both. Let me be the first to welcome you to New Logopolis," the man greeted. His clothing was slightly different in cut, likely to indicate his station, but the colors were the same.

"It is, but then again it isn't," the Doctor said with a bright smile. "I have so many questions for you, so first-"

"You're so rude sometimes," Felicity interrupted, elbowing the Time Lord in the side without taking her eyes from the Monitor. "Don't listen to him, he gets like this when he's enthused. My name is Felicity and this is the Doctor."

"The Doctor?" the Monitor repeated, immediately shifting his gaze to the man at Felicity's side, who was babying his ribs and glaring at the red-headed woman in a slightly childish fashion. "The Logopolitans have legends about the Doctor. How is it that you are he?"

The Doctor gave Felicity a smug smile, one that said 'ha, they know me, I'm important'. "I travel in time, it's very complicated," he insisted. "The last time I was in contact with your people, Logopolis was destroyed by entropy, along with a huge chunk of the universe, how is it that you survived?"

"Please, come with me," the Monitor insisted, pleasantly ushering them into a side hallway, which led to a room with comfortable seating. "We have much history to discuss with you, Doctor."


	13. Chapter 12

"So you survived by escaping to E-Space? I suppose that makes sense. Must have been a bumpy ride," the Doctor mused, leaning back in his wooden chair. Felicity grabbed the back and pushed it forward, forcing him to land the object back on all four of its legs. To an outsider, it looked very much like something a mother would to do a child, but it was nothing of the sort. Felicity stifled a giggle when the Doctor looked back at her in mock irritation. She had endless fun teasing him, and being around him for nine years gave her quite a few things to poke fun at him for. He never complained beyond a look here and there; she knew he secretly enjoyed the attention anyway.

The Monitor nodded. "A small group of our ancestors were able to escape to E-Space before the CVE on our own planet closed. We repopulated our race after a few centuries had passed and survived long enough to re-open them from the other side. It has taken many years to find another planet here in N-Space hospitable enough to live on, but we managed it in the end."

"Fascinating," the Doctor declared. "Are there still members of your race in E-Space?"

The Monitor shook his head. "We have that same CVE open on this planet in case of emergency, should something terrible happen once again, but it is more efficient to perform our block transfer computations here in N-Space. They are more effective if calculated in this universe. We are also attempting to re-create the program that was previously under construction by the original Logopolitans to keep the CVEs self-sufficient."

Felicity was standing behind the Doctor, listening in fascination. Much of this information was not known to her before; she was very excited to learn as much as she could. She would have to write all of this down. The TARDIS had recently made a shelf in her room for her accounts of her journeys with the Doctor; it was already more than half filled with notebooks. She didn't want to forget a single second. "I'm still not quite following everything," Felicity said to the Monitor. "There has been little recorded history on this event, to my knowledge at least."

The Logopolitan nodded. "It would make sense, considering how few people survived the incident. In short, my native planet was destroyed from an attack by a cruel man. He silenced my people, causing the CVEs to close and the now vacant section of the universe to be overrun by entropy. Several other planets were destroyed because of this as well, but the Doctor here managed to keep one CVE open near the planet you call Earth, thereby saving the universe from heat death."

"Just one wouldn't be enough, though," she stated, ignoring the saving-the-universe bit that the Doctor had looked so proud of for a moment.

"That is correct. It has been five hundred years since my people escaped to E-Space and only one hundred since we have returned here, to N-Space," the Monitor explained. "Only recently were we able to perform our computations again with any regularity."

"How many of you are there now?" the Doctor questioned, tapping his hand idly on the desk to his right. "And how many Logopolitan cities are on this planet?"

"We number in the few thousands now," the white-haired man answered. "Five hundred years have given us several new generations. We have only one city, this one, Naka."

The Doctor smiled in approval. "Thousands of Logopolitans... That's brilliant!" It really was. He had been so sure that the Logopolitans had been wiped out, all that raw intelligence just... poof. He was more than pleased to be wrong this time.

Felicity and the Doctor spent a bit longer chatting with the Monitor. The man from before, the one who was named Kraven, burst into the room as the two time travelers were saying their goodbyes.

"Monitor sir, please forgive my intrusion," Kraven said, breathless. "There have been reports of an unidentified spacecraft on the outskirts of the city. It seems to be damaged, but it has not landed or crashed as of yet. There have been attempts to communicate with the crew, but we have gotten no response."

The Monitor furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "I see. Please exercise caution-"

"We can investigate it for you," Felicity offered cheerily. The Doctor looked over his shoulder at her and stood from his chair, but said nothing in protest.

"I couldn't ask you to do that," the Monitor said, shaking his head. "It could be dangerous."

"Bah, danger, who's afraid of a little danger?" the Doctor insisted, giving Felicity a look that seemed to say 'see, I can be fearless too'. "We will investigate it, don't you worry."

"We appreciate it, Doctor," the Monitor replied. "Please be careful; we would feel terrible if any harm befell you."

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Felicity and the Doctor crept through the trees, the latter hushing the twigs beneath their feet whenever he happened to step on one. "Tell me again why you volunteered us for this?"

"Because it's fun? I don't know," the ginger woman replied. She spotted the spacecraft, which had long since crashed. "We do an awful lot of sneaking around."

"We do an awful lot of sneaking around in forests," the Time Lord corrected. "Like Vashta Nerada."

"Yeah we do, why is that?" Felicity questioned, peering around a piece of wreckage. They had long since left the trees behind and were now upon the crash site, debris smoking around them. It was a scary sight, but too much of the ship was intact for it to be a true crash; he looked as though it had started to land, but was interrupted. It seemed strangely familiar to the woman; she'd seen a craft like this somewhere before. The Doctor began sonic-ing the craft here and there, trying to determine the circumstance of its abrupt meeting with the ground. Felicity ran to his side, observing the strange markings on the outside of the ship. They looked like claw marks, four perfect lines in a row, something that no crash could have made.

"This ship was attacked, Doctor. Look," she said, pointing to the lesions. They were huge, easily as long as her forearm and almost as thick. "Hold on..." She turned and walked behind the Doctor, around to what would have been the front of the ship. The color drained from her face instantly. "Daleks!"

"What?" The Doctor immediately ceased his scanning and ran to the front of the ship, where Felicity was standing, peering into the gaping maw that had ripped apart the ship from the inside. Crushed Daleks were strewn about like broken dolls, not a single one completely intact and all dead. The innards of the ship had been torn apart by those same four claw marks. The Doctor crept cautiously inside, inspecting every last Dalek to entire that they had indeed all perished. Felicity followed him into the ship, acting more confident than she felt. She made her way to the cockpit, inspecting the computer systems and gleaning what she could from the machines. She tried starting up the mainframe and was unsurprised when there was no reaction.

The Doctor walked up behind her, scratching his head in confusion. "They're all dead. Crushed into oblivion, it seems. No colored ones, though."

"What would have the gall to attack a ship full of Daleks?" she asked, punching random buttons on the console in front of her. Still, nothing happened. She sighed.

"Apparently something huge and angry," he replied distractedly, feeling that familiar 'I'm-missing-something-very-important-right-in-front-of-my-nose' feeling.

Something moved at Felicity's feet. A feeling of dread suddenly washed over her, turning her stomach to ice. "Doctor!"

One of the Daleks next to her feet was moving. The Doctor grabbed Felicity's arm and pulled her back behind him, watching the creature's limbs move around morbidly. A few moments passed and nothing else happened. "Hello?" the Doctor ventured.

The Dalek said nothing. Felicity crouched next to it and touched its metal surface before the Doctor could stop her, but nothing happened. It took him a moment to work out what exactly had happened. "It's dead, but caught," he explained finally, still staring at the creature's moving limbs. "The metal casing still has a little power, but the creature inside has passed on. Electrical flim-flam."

"Let's rig it up then!" Felicity said, standing and cracking her knuckles. She looked back over her shoulder and caught the Doctor smiling at her, sonic screwdriver already in hand.

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"This red wire goes here, right?"

"No, that wire goes right there, next to the green... thing." The sound of a bit of jiggery-pokery came from behind her head, aimed at the wires that were connecting the Dalek to the computer at her right.

"What? No it doesn't, it goes here."

"I think I know a bit more about the inner electrical workings of a Dalek than you, thank you, Miss Pond."

"You haven't called me that in years," Felicity replied unperturbed. She ignored the Doctor's instruction and connected the wire to the spot she had chosen. They had wired the metal shell up to the main computer in hopes of using the power to reboot it. Her way would make the power last longer, though his way would have been faster in the short run. Hopefully there was a message or some surveillance footage or _something_ to explain all of this. The Dalek had since been removed from its metal fortress, Felicity giving the squid-like creature more sympathy than it deserved, according to the Doctor. They spent the next several minutes stripping this and that of wires, trying to get the central computer up and working again, even for a few precious minutes. Felicity connected the last wire and nodded at her traveling companion, who aimed his sonic screwdriver at the Dalek.

The screen in front of the Doctor lit up briefly. He managed to sonic his way into the surveillance system and retrieve a ten-second clip, but it told them nothing. The footage contained nothing from the attack or from the landing, just a random ten-second clip of the Daleks being... well, Daleks. They sighed in unison.

"So much for that," Felicity stated grumpily, standing up from her crouching position next to the Dalek's shell. She crossed her arms and observed the now dead screen with indifference.

The Doctor suddenly inhaled deeply through his nose. Felicity turned her head and raised and eyebrow at him, mouth open to ask why, but she stopped. He had gone frightfully pale. Too pale, like someone who had been dead for a decent amount of time, far more pale than she had been before. "Doctor? What is it?"

"Gallifrey," he said softly. "There's something in the air here, something very faint that smells like... Gallifrey. But how is that possible?"

"What? Gallifrey?" Felicity paused. "You don't think... Doctor, they're dead Daleks."

He paused in thought and inhaled the scent of his home once again. It was full of nostalgia and precious history. Coming back to the present, he turned a severe gaze to her. "We are leaving. Now."

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"What do you mean evacuate the planet? That's highly illogical, Doctor. It is possible with enough time, yes, but why?" The Monitor was inspecting them both with guarded scrutiny. He had trusted these people, but now they were ranting and raving about an enemy that they had not actually witnessed.

"You don't understand, this is something that you cannot fight and you cannot beat," the Doctor insisted, trying his very best not to pace around the room. Explaining it to them wouldn't help; he barely knew what it was himself.

"He's right, escape back to E-Space if you must, but all of your people will die again if you don't find some way of getting them off this planet," Felicity said, watching the Doctor out of the corner of her eye. He was in a frenzied panic, she knew, and there was nothing in this universe or the next that could get him out of it until every last Logopolitan was safe.

"Monitor, sir!" Kraven was at the open doorway, clutching the door frame with white knuckles. "Something is happening outside the city, sir. No one understands what's going on, but civilians have been having seizures and collapsing dead left and right. The deaths seem to be located in the direction of the unidentified spacecraft and moving rapidly. It's leaving no one alive."

"What?" The Monitor's eyes went from Kraven to the Doctor. "Is this what you were trying to tell me?"

"Yes, and you have to get everyone as far away from here as you can. That thing is murderous, bloodthirsty, and even I have no idea what it is," the Doctor replied regretfully. He wished Romana had given him some indication of what it was. She'd figured it out, after all. Then again, perhaps such information was far too dangerous to communicate just by message. In person would have been more prudent, but that was impossible now, as much as it pained him to remember it.

"Doctor, you seem to know what it is. If that is the case, I would like to know what precisely we are dealing with," the Monitor pressed, anxiety gracing his features. Felicity could almost see the gears in his oversized head working, trying to find an answer that would save his people.

The Doctor turned and ran out the door, pulling out his sonic screwdriver. He knew enough about this creature to know that it could detect sonic waves; it would be quite familiar with the technology of the Time Lords. He aimed it at the satellite dish and pressed a button, the resulting signal much like the one he had used to try and attract the attention of the Atraxi all those years ago. Now it would be on its way here. He re-entered the room quickly, finding the Monitor still standing there, eyes begging for his question to be answered. "To my people, it is called the Nightmare Child," the Time Lord replied gravely. "It is death incarnate and it is running loose on your planet."


	14. Chapter 13

"So what's the plan, Doc?"

The Doctor gave Felicity a 'don't-ever-call-me-that-again' look. She stifled a giggle and he frowned. "It's not the time for jokes," he said seriously. He knew how fast the Nightmare Child traveled; it would be here very soon. The Monitor had taken them to a different room and the Doctor was now busily sonic-ing the computer that controlled the satellite on the roof. Logopolitans were dying everywhere now; he wasn't sure how many, if any, he could save. They were stubborn people, very few agreeing to leave their new planet without a fight, though he had tried to explain that there was very little they could really do to help.

"It's now or never," she replied, just as seriously. "Either we joke around or we get over worried and make mistakes. Which would you prefer?"

"Bah," he grumbled in response. Pacing ensued. She was right, of course, which seemed to happen more and more the older she got. He was pacing around the room, trying to figure out what exactly should be done about the Nightmare Child. He didn't know what it was, much less how to stop it. The creature was something odd in itself; the Time Lords had spent months deciphering what it was made out of, which didn't make sense, though they had confirmed it true. It had taken them even longer to create a way to see it properly. Fortunately, the Doctor could do it with his sonic screwdriver and the satellite dish outside. That would give them a small advantage, though it wasn't comforting to the Time Lord; it would just give the Logopolitans a way to see their death right before it descended upon them. "Felicity, go back to the TARDIS."

She gave an amused grunt. "As if."

"I mean it," he replied, pausing in his pacing to send and almost-glare her way.

"I know you do," she said, crossing her arms defiantly. She was no longer her mother, but someone new and old, shining and dark. She was so very different now, but different in a good way. She had grown into someone brilliant and amazing, someone he was proud to have as a companion and an equal. A thought suddenly flitted across his mind about never letting her cut her hair. "But that doesn't mean I'm going. I haven't gone any of the other times you told me to go back, why should I go now?"

"Because even I have no idea what this thing truly is. I don't know," he said, emphasizing every word. It had been years since she had listened to him, though she had promised to always obey him, nine years and several millennia ago in her middle school. "You could die."

"So could you!" She dropped her arms angrily.

"But I can regenerate. You can't," he pointed out, crossing the room to her, inspecting her gaze closely for any shred of fear or doubt. She stood defiant, showing him nothing. His posture collapsed, shoulders lowered in defeat. "You really won't go?"

She shook her head. "Not while you're in danger."

"Here's the deal," he said finally, putting a hand on either side of her face, gauging her reaction as he looked into her eyes seriously. "You do exactly as I say this time. Every last word and I won't make you listen to me ever again." He knew she would listen to him anyway; she always did, unless it involved leaving him in danger. She nodded and raised her left hand to lay it on his right. "I will not lose you."

"The Logopolitans are more important," she declared, surprised at her own lack of fear.

The Doctor shook his head. "That's not how it works."

"I know." She knew the Doctor would never put a single being above a whole planet, but the reverse was also true; he would never sacrifice a single being to save a planet if he could help it.

He kissed her on the forehead. "Now let's go fight the Nightmare Child."

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Felicity flipped a switch on the TARDIS's console, silently thankful that the time machine was on the opposite side of the city as the Nightmare Child was. The Doctor had come up with a plan-ish-type-thing which involved using the TARDIS to construct a cage for the Nightmare Child. At least, that's what he said. She knew he was silently hoping that the machine would activate Emergency Protocol One, but Felicity knew she wouldn't. The TARDIS had liked her from the very beginning and she'd become a travelling companion just as much as the Doctor had. The machine knew the human woman, almost as well as she knew her Time Lord pilot. It had been nine years, after all, and the ship understood her; she wouldn't let the TARDIS take her back to Leadworth anytime soon. Besides, she could just as well fly herself right back here.

The TARDIS whirred, disappearing and reappearing in the courtyard, much to the surprise of the Logopolitans nearby; they were unlike their ancestors in that they had never seen such a machine before. The Doctor burst through the door, talking to himself in what sounded like gibberish to anyone but Felicity.

"We need power converters, a four-dimensional hyper- no, wait, that's holding the refrigerator door shut... Aaah... Think, think..." He paced around the TARDIS console in a circle, passing Felicity several times while messing up his hair in thought.

"We could always get the Logopolitans to use their block transfer computations to make a prison," Felicity suggested, back to the console as she watched him walk.

"A good idea, but it would take far too long to come up with the accurate measurements, not to mention the fact that if the Logopolitans stopped for as long as it would take to make said prison, and I don't even know how to make it, their CVE on this planet would close, causing the entropy that's being funneled in to stall here, killing them all over again. I don't like repeats," he added, tossing the sonic screwdriver back and forth between his hands.

"So the TARDIS then?" she offered, deciding that his explanation seemed reasonable enough.

"The TARDIS is an almost unlimited source of electrical power if we tap into the Time Vortex, which is quite dangerous unless you know what you're doing."

"Good thing you've got me then," Felicity replied with a smirk. The Doctor just rolled his eyes dramatically, the corners of his mouth turning upward ever so slightly. "Are we using electricity to trap it?"

"More like paralyze it, but yes," he replied, finally pausing in his circuit around the console.

"So what do we do exactly?"

"This," replied the Doctor, and proceeded to launch into a huge, Doctor-ish explanation that the ginger woman could have explained in a few short sentences.

"Alright then, just as long as it doesn't hurt her," she said, patting the TARDIS fondly like she had a say in it. Which she did.

"Of course not," the Doctor replied indignantly. "I would never."

"Good," she responded, and then followed him to the lower level of the ship. Outside, yelling was heard. The Doctor perked up his ears and ran back outside. The Logopolitans were talking hurriedly amongst themselves.

"What's happening?" the Time Lord demanded.

The Monitor rushed out to the Courtyard from the computer room, "Doctor!"

The Doctor ran over to the man, who was flushed and breathing heavily. "What is it? Is it here?"

"No," the man breathed. "It's everywhere else! It's going from building to building, hundreds are dead already and more are dying by the second."

"What?" the Doctor whispered. It was supposed to be HERE, not everywhere else. He KNEW it would have sensed the sonic technology, so why...?

"Revenge," Felicity said, stepping out of the TARDIS with a large bundle of cords under an arm. "It's probably taking revenge. It knows the Doctor. It knows how highly he values life."

"I don't know if that's the case," the Doctor replied, turning to the red headed woman, then back to the Monitor with old, sorrowful eyes. "If it is, I cannot express how very sorry I am."

The Monitor just nodded. "Please just do what you must. Everyone here knows they cannot stop computing. They will likely stay until their deaths."

"You should prepare for evacuation," Felicity said, ignoring his previous statement. "This city has a CVE for you all to escape through, you said so yourself."

"But this is a funnel point," Kraven said, walking up to them. "If the CVE here were to close, the entropy would build up and kill everyone who was left behind. Another large chunk of the universe would be lost. Not to mention that the CVE here is specifically designed to open up to E-Space, to give us all a place to return to. That constitutes a lot of work on our part; all other CVEs open to relatively random universes."

The Doctor ruffled his hair in frustration. "Okay, okay, this is what we're going to do. Felicity, I need you to hook those up to the computer that controls the satellite, exactly the way that I explained it to you." He turned back to the Monitor, clapping his hands together once. "As long as the TARDIS stays physically linked with the computer, she can mentally connect with all of the Logopolitans and feed your block transfer computations into it without the need for speaking aloud. It isn't a permanent solution, obviously, but it will allow your people greater mobility. Can you deliver that message to everyone, Kraven? The TARDIS won't hurt them at all, just make your calculations a bit easier until this ordeal is over. She'll also be the fuel for our trap that-"

"Trap? We aren't going to kill it?"

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows at the Monitor, who had spoken. "Of course not. My trap will work. Besides, the Nightmare Child has a prison made specifically to contain it for the rest of time. We capture it." He poked the man in the chest to emphasize his point. The Monitor looked unconvinced, but agreed. Kraven hurried off to perform the task the Doctor had set to him, but it was too late.

A screech, ungodly and dark, met the ears of everyone in the courtyard. The Doctor yelled for Felicity, who had just finished connecting the TARDIS to the computer. She raced out into the open area, just in time for the Doctor to put himself between her and the creature that was now clambering over the walls of the courtyard. The Logopolitans were running from one side of the courtyard to the other, trying to get away from the thing – because that's all that any of them could think to call it – that was trying to kill every last one of them.

"Doctor... I don't understand." Felicity refused to cling to him as a child would. She instead stood semi-confidently next to him, trying to discern what exactly was now perched on the top of the courtyard wall. The wall itself seemed to be rippling like the surface of a pond after it had been disturbed by a rock.

The Doctor watched the creature closely. "See, you can't actually see what it really looks like. It's invisible to any being that happens to see it, except for that little blip of purple you see."

"It looks like one of those toys, where you put your hand on the glass and the electricity inside moves to match your fingers," she said, as she watched the strange purple electricity that was seemingly floating in the air.

The Doctor wondered what exactly it was doing. It was just sitting there. It knew him; perhaps it was watching him. He raised his arm to the TARDIS and the sonic screwdriver made its all too familiar buzzing sound. The signal traveled from the TARDIS, through the central computer and into the satellite, allowing every Logopolitan that the TARDIS had linked herself up with to suddenly be able to see the creature. It screamed.

Felicity could only describe it as darkness. The entire creature was black, the darkest black imaginable, one that sucked in everything it touched. The darkness swirled around it like an evil fog. It had no discernible appendages or head, but rather changed its shape randomly, a great mass of black. The dark would occasionally form something that looked like a head or perhaps a leg, but then it would dissolve back into nothingness. It was a swarm, she decided. She decided that this was probably how Vashta Nerada looked. But she knew this was nothing like Vashta Nerada.

"Get back!" The Doctor yelled, aiming his sonic screwdriver at the creature, which let out a screech that no one in the vicinity could have possibly described. It didn't jump, rather poured from the wall onto the ground, then collected into a semi-solid mass once again. The Doctor was slowly edging backwards, taking Felicity and several Logopolitans with him. The Nightmare Child seemed to be weighing its options. Strange things were happening around it, the ground crumbling and re-forming seemingly at random. It crept forward, anomalies following closely. The creature had to get close to the TARDIS, that was the whole point. Inside the TARDIS's air shield, which had been extended long ago.

The Logopolitans were frozen in place, though almost all of them had expressions on their faces that revealed that they all wished very much to run. The few that had heard the Doctor's idea continued their computations, but CVEs all over the universe were closing. The creature reared back, for lack of a better way for Felicity to describe it, and attacked.


	15. Chapter 14

Sorry about this taking forever! College and all that. This story happens to be drawing to a close, though! Well, almost. A couple more chapters to go. Enjoy! Did I mention I love reviews?

* * *

"Get out of the way!" The Doctor grabbed Felicity's hand and yanked her to the right, dodging the screaming creature that was bounding their way. It twisted and turned, writhing like nothing Felicity had ever seen before. The Logopolitans yelled and scattered. The main computer sounded an alarm; CVEs all over the universe were closing dangerously fast. The machine was still connected to the TARDIS, but the Nightmare Child had to be dangerously close to the blue box for his plan to work.

The Doctor unceremoniously pushed Felicity in the Monitor's direction. The TARDIS couldn't do much for her; it was stuck where it was, helping to keep the failing CVEs open. The Monitor could at least take her somewhere she couldn't be harmed by the beast in front of them. "It wants me, keep her safe!"

"No!" Felicity almost kicked him as he ran off. She ran her eyes over the courtyard. _There must be something I can do to help!_

The Doctor ran into an open spot, waving his arms frantically. "Hey! You there, with the... fat head! Yeah, you heard me- Oh, not good, not good." He turned and ran almost face first down the closest hallway he could find, the Nightmare Child barreling after him in rage. It screeched and its voice made the walls around them convulse like an earthquake, dust falling from the ceiling in waves. The Doctor quickly turned a corner, almost slipping and falling in the process as the creature slammed into the wall behind him. The few Logopolitans that were left in the halls ducked into what rooms they could find, cowering from the black shadow that was chasing the odd man in the bow tie.

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"Please come with me," the Monitor gently took Felicity's hand, pulling her in the direction of the control room. "If what the Doctor says is true, we must evacuate."

"I'm not leaving him," she answered stubbornly, heading in the direction of the TARDIS. "You should escape into the CVE; the only thing keeping it open is Kraven, isn't it?" The man was standing behind them, chanting quietly yet feverishly to himself. The rest of the Logopolitans from inside the building were quickly rushing into the computer room, meaning to escape through the CVE inside.

The Monitor nodded solemnly. "It is his wish."

"Then leave! I know it's through that door in the computer room, I saw it," she said, heart jumping into her throat when she heard the creature scream again. The TARDIS doors were propped open by the cords running to the computer and she ran toward the box; she wondered if there was a way to electrocute it from afar, since that was essentially what they were trying to do up close. The the area and the magnitude of the surge would be different, but-

"Felicity! Please!" The Monitor was looking back and forth between the woman and Kraven, who was barely keeping up with his calculations. "The Doctor would want you to come with us!"

"Wait a second," she paused in mid run, something in the back of her head resonating with a book she'd read in the TARDIS's library, something from years ago, something that was so very important now. "That thing... It could bend the matter around it." She suddenly realized that this was far more grave than even the Doctor could have imagined.

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"Okay, okay," the Doctor began speaking to himself aloud, since that was really the only thing that was going to help them all at the moment, bar a miracle, and he had yet to see one of those. "So it can distort the ground like water, but it slams into a wall?" He ducked as the creature lashed out and crumbled the wall less than a foot from his head. The creature seemed to be made of electricity, with its center in the middle of the black... stuff. The volts made his hair stand up more than usual which was quite a feat all things considered. He rushed past another open door as the Nightmare Child screamed again. "Okay, slams into a wall, but apparently can distort- That doesn' t make any sense!"

He abruptly arrived at the last place he wanted to be; the courtyard. Again. In a split second, he took in the lack of Logopolitans, the obvious presence of the Monitor, and a red headed woman poking her head out of the TARDIS who wasn't supposed to be there any longer. "Felicity, get out of here!" He ran from one side of the courtyard to the other, the Nightmare Child almost close enough to touch him.

"I'm not leaving!" she yelled, ignoring her previous promise as per usual. "I saw what it was doing! It can distort the universe!"

"I know, I know!" he yelled back, trying to coax the thing closer to the TARDIS. "It doesn't make any sense!" It was the size of a large earth vehicle and many times more deadly. Just a little bit closer...

"Yes it does," she insisted loudly, ignoring the Monitor who was trying and failing to coax her out of the blue box. "It's cracked the Stasis Paradigm!"

"What?" he exclaimed, running from one of the creature's limbs.

"It makes sense!" she insisted. "Think about it!"

"Running for my life here, thanks!" he yelled back, watching the creature come within millimeters of the air shield. The electricity within it was cracking and surging; he hoped it wouldn't use it as a projectile.

"You can run and think at the same time!" she yelled at him.

In that very moment, everything clicked into place. "It makes sense!" he suddenly yelled, as if he'd thought of the whole idea himself. "The black stuff on it, I didn't say before, but it's dark matter!"

"What? I thought no one could see dark matter!" she yelled back, shooting a look across the room at Kraven and the Monitor, who had begun chanting as well in order to help the brave Logopolitan that had been keeping the one last CVE open. _What can I do?_

"Normally you can't, but the Time Lords devised a way to make it visible to the naked eye!" The Doctor was backed into a corner, much to his dismay. The sonic screwdriver wouldn't work on it and he had nothing to hit it with.

Suddenly, the beast was hit with a large rush of electricity. It twitched and thrashed and fell unceremoniously to the floor. The Doctor didn't question it and quickly ran from his time out. Felicity was standing at the TARDIS doors, grinning like a madwoman. "Temporary air shield extension using energy from a foldback loop through the refrigerator of all things! Ha!"

"A what?" he exclaimed, backing away from the creature quickly. It was twitching; it would be waking up soon. Too soon. The surge was only a fraction of the energy the TARDIS had stored up in order to trap this creature, which was the only fact that granted him any peace of mind. "How did you know to do that?"

"I never told you; I found an extra copy of the manual." She grinned.

The creature screamed. It folded back on itself much too quickly for the both of them to react and it lashed out in Felicity's direction. The Doctor grabbed her hand, but she was thrown away from his grasp, loudly cracking her head on the wall to his right. He heard it. It _echoed_. "Felicity!"

The Monitor took the opportunity to quickly scoop her up in his arms, as the Doctor angrily aimed the sonic screwdriver at the satellite above their heads, using a setting that would burn the ears of most anything that heard it. If the Nightmare Child could hit a wall, which still didn't make sense, perhaps this would at least block its way for a moment. The huge piece of metal creaked and groaned, finally letting gravity have its way and falling directly on top of the creature, who was about to lunge ferociously at the Doctor.

He quickly approached the Monitor and Felicity, who was barely conscious and had more blood than a human should even possess streaming down the side of her head. "This is all my fault..."

"Doctor, I must go if I have even a small chance of saving her," the Monitor insisted. "I trust you, but if you cannot save our planet, or even this universe, let us save her."

The Time Lord nodded. He took Felicity's head in his hands as the Nightmare Child was scrambling and clawing its way out from beneath the huge metal disc. "Felicity, can you hear me?"

"Do... ctor?" Her words were slow and labored, eyes fluttering like the wings of a bug that had been suddenly caught by a spider.

This was his fault. All his fault. He should have known something like this was going to happen. It was always the ones who didn't deserve to die. Felicity was still so young and he so old. Old and blind. Blind to everything. More than anything, he had been blind to _her_.

And it suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks.

River had never explained their relationship to him outright; he didn't think this face could _actually_ fall in love with anyone.

Apparently, he was quite wrong.

"I'm sorry," he said, quickly planting a kiss on her lips. There was a sudden surge of what the Monitor would later describe as golden light. The Doctor directed the regenerative energy carefully, quite unlike what had happened long ago to his best friend, that temp from Chiswick. He hadn't been there; it had taken free reign of Donna's mind and destroyed it utterly. He just hoped that it would work on Amy's daughter. She was, after all, someone with no solid timeline; invariably, anything could be done to save her and it would be within the laws of time. Permitted, even. For once, he was being permitted to save a life and he didn't even know if it would work.

It was only a brief moment before he separated from Felicity. "Go, hurry up!" The Monitor neglected to comment or question, simply carried the now unconscious woman into the control room. They had built special ships upon their return to this universe, small ones that could easily traverse the Gateway between the universes. Kraven refused to follow, keeping the CVE open just long enough for Felicity and the Monitor to slip through before it closed.

The Doctor saw her time line solidify in one horrible second, then dissipate before his eyes. He didn't get to see whether his attempt had saved her life or not. She was gone.


	16. Chapter 15

Author Note: I changed the summary for this particular story. I should have changed it a long time ago, but I finally got around to it, hooray! Please don't be confused; I changed nothing else but the summary.

* * *

She could never remember feeling so strange.

The sensation was overwhelming, down every nerve in her body. It hurt, so much pain. All she could remember was the Doctor's lips and a surge of... something. Energy? Life? She didn't know. Where was he?

She was tired, so very tired. The life had been draining out of her, but he had saved her. Just like he always did. The Logopolitans were crowded around her. There were so very few of them now, on this planet with nothing left but themselves. There was no way to tell whether or not Kraven had survived. She couldn't see anything. Her vision was black, as dark as the Nightmare Child. The voices around her were muffled and she felt dizzy, sick to her stomach. Her head throbbed, but everything was in slow motion. She could vaguely feel the warm blood dripping down the side of her head. It showed no signs of stopping.

Suddenly, Felicity felt her body seize up and her consciousness fell into darkness. The few Logopolitans around her watched helplessly as her body convulsed, a trauma-induced seizure pulling her under.

xxxxxxxxxx

He was furious.

It was this thing's fault that she was probably dead. He wouldn't kill it, of course. He would force it to live every second possible, caged and alone. To some that would sound cruel, but this creature had slaughtered thousands, likely millions. It didn't deserve anything more than what he was about to give it.

He turned to face the beast, aiming the sonic screwdriver at the computer that was behind Kraven, the whirring of the metal tool loud and angry. The CVE behind Kraven was closed; there was only seconds before the planet was consumed by the building entropy. He had to work quickly.

The Doctor's signal to the computer caused the energy within to be transferred to the TARDIS. The resulting burst of electricity was enough to extend the air shield just as Felicity had done moments before, but with a slightly different result: being a machine that was meant to control every CVE in the entire universe and power the ships that the surviving Logopolitans had used to escape to E-Space, the computer itself was powerful enough to extend the shield for many seconds, catching and trapping the wriggling black mass that was now shrieking in pain. It convulsed and screamed, electricity coursing over its shapeless body until it collapsed in a pool of black.

The monster wouldn't be inside the TARDIS; that was a chance he'd never take, even if he had every one of his regenerations left. The beast would be contained in the shield just long enough to transport it to its prison.

The Doctor quickly ran back to the TARDIS; the time to transport the beast was limited. He motioned to Kraven who had been standing back, away from the creature. "Hurry, there's not much time!" The Logopolitan ran headlong toward the blue box and dissolved into dust before the Doctor's eyes. He stared. The pinpricks of the man's life fell to the ground like snow.

The Time Lord gritted his teeth angrily and shut the TARDIS doors. Another one he couldn't save, one so courageous and strong. The air shield was compressing, dragging the Nightmare Child along the ground and near to the machine's exterior for easier transport. He ran around the console, pressing buttons and pulling levers. The perfect prison for this monster was waiting, almost one hundred years in the past. He set the coordinates and the blue box faded away, the sound of the universe drifting on the dying wind.

xxxxxxxxxx

The core of Mesopotamia was quiet.

That was the first thing that came to his mind as he stepped out of the TARDIS. The place was enormous and spherical, bridges and beams with lights coming from every direction to support the platform in the very center, suspended precisely where the core of the planet would be. The TARDIS was parked on the precise spot that was required, for the unconscious beast was directly in the center on a raised platform, flanked on both sides by what looked like generators of some sort. It briefly crossed the Doctor's mind that this must have been where all of the extra energy had been stored all those years ago. He examined each one, coming to the conclusion that they were still in working order. They had done a magnificent job constructing this place, but there was no time to admire the workmanship.

He sonic'd the machines into use; they lit up at the slightest provocation, encasing the Nightmare Child within what seemed to be an electric barrier. The Doctor watched in fascination as the machines whirred and buzzed, constructing the one thing that he had hoped they would make.

The Nightmare Child stirred within the barrier, but it was too late for the creature to escape. The machines made a loud 'click' and the black mass froze in place, electricity trailing around the barrier in every conceivable direction.

It was a personalized Time Lock.

The Lock, built specifically to house this exact being, was slightly different from a normal Time Lock. It was meant to put the being inside in a state of indefinite suspended animation by quite literally pausing the flow of time around it. More to the point, it was a localized time loop of such a small duration, a fraction of a nanosecond, he guessed, that the monster was effectively frozen in place and Time was thus paused. The duration was so small that the cracked Stasis Paradigm was meaningless. It could also be opened from the outside, as opposed to a normal Time Lock, which was permanent. He surmised this was meant for transportation purposes, as even this planet would not last until the end of this universe, nor was there enough electricity built up to keep it here for more than ten years. It would need another planet, he realized, and he would find it one when the time came.

The Doctor let out a sigh of relief, anger, and sadness. He knew that one hundred years in the future, the Universe was dying. He had to help, had to do something, must do something.

A glimmer of a thought suddenly brightened his eyes. "There's an open CVE near Earth," he whispered.

He ran back to the TARDIS as fast as his legs would carry him, leaving the Nightmare Child to its eternal prison.

xxxxxxxxxx

He remembered, because it was the last heroic act his fourth face had done.

Switches were flipped and buttons were pressed as he flew through the Time Vortex, back hundreds and hundreds of years to that very day when he had saved the Universe by opening a CVE near the Earth. The Master had caused him to regenerate, but he decided it was a small price in the end.

The Doctor raced to the CVE as fast as possible, furiously calculating along the way. There was only a very small chance that this CVE would open to E-Space; there were millions of other universes possible, but it had to be E-Space. It must be. If it was, he could get Felicity back. They could fix the universe together, the way it was supposed to be. The CVE loomed before him and he forced the TARDIS through it, ignoring her mechanical, shuddering protests in his mind. She understood, though she complained, and he knew it.

He arrived with a thud and picked himself up off of the floor. He rushed to the doors and practically flew out of them, but instantly fell silent.

E-Space had a green tint to it. Everything green tinted, like you were looking through a visor. But this place wasn't green. It was normal. Just another universe.

_Felicity..._

He slumped back against the TARDIS, listening to his hearts beat and his lungs breathe. She was gone. The girl with the sharp wit and even sharper mind. She had told him forever, just like they always did. But it was his own fault that she was... He shook his head of the word that he refused to let himself think.

What was he supposed to do?

The TARDIS doors opened for him without provocation, the only time she had ever done so. The Doctor almost stumbled back, but managed to catch himself on the railing in time. She was right, as usual. He had to keep going. What else was there now?

They always ended up... And it was because of him. It was always because of him.

"I'll have to tell Amy," he said softly. But the universe was dying, hundreds of years in the future.

The Doctor set course for Leadworth, on the very day that Felicity had come with him. He couldn't stop it, but at least he could tell her parents what he had done.


	17. Chapter 16

He simply stood there, watching her. Breathing. Thinking. He couldn't possibly convey everything that he wanted to tell her. She wouldn't listen after what he had to say.

"I'm... I'm sorry," he said finally, watching her face change from curiosity to confusion, then to amusement.

"Sorry for not coming back to visit, yeah you better be!" Amy smiled and closed the gap between them, noting that the expression on his face never changed. She almost gave him a hug, then stopped. "Doctor, is something wrong?"

"Yes," he answered, trying his best not to fiddle with the clip of his suspenders in anxiety.

"What is it? What's wrong?" She heard the porch door open behind her, Rory shouting his greetings to their long lost friend.

The Doctor paused. "It's Felicity." Amy's eyes widened. "I'm sorry."

"What's happened?" She demanded softly. "What's happened?"

Rory came jogging up behind them, while his wife was frozen to the ground. "Doctor, it's been far too long!" He paused, then approached cautiously, furrowing his eyebrows. "Something's wrong."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor repeated. He wondered how he could possibly say it enough times. How he could even begin to explain.

"Sorry for what?" Rory asked, turning to his wife for an explanation. The ginger woman seemed terrified, but not the kind that made you want to run. It was the kind that made fire burn in your eyes.

"Doctor. What. Happened. Tell me what happened to my daughter." It was no longer a question, coming from little Amelia Pond. It was a demand, coming from larger-than-life Amy Williams.

"She came with me," he said simply. "She traveled with me. Her whole time line was in flux, and I didn't know."

"Didn't know what?" Rory asked, silently grasping his wife's hand in support. They were staring at the Time Lord like they'd never seen him before in their lives. Like he was foreign. Alien.

"I didn't know... that it was going to end up like this."

"Like what?" Amy demanded, voice rising in anger. "TELL ME!"

"She's gone," the Doctor replied, his voice like a hollowed out tree, soft like fungi and moss. "She's gone and I couldn't stop it. I couldn't stop any of it." His eyes finally met Amy's and he could feel both of his hearts breaking. "I'm sorry."

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Rory demanded, voice harsh with anger.

"I mean she's gone," he repeated. It hurt to say, it hurt so much, but he had to tell them. "She's gone and she'll never come back."

"What have you done?" Amy lunged at him, but Rory grabbed her and held her back. The Doctor moved not an inch. He deserved whatever physical punishment she meant to give him. It would take focus away from the pain in his chest.

Amy fought against Rory's strength, but eventually crumpled to the grass, screaming. Screaming for her little girl. Rory glared up at the Doctor with hateful, angry eyes.

"Why would you take a child with you?" He demanded.

"I told you, her entire time line was in flux. That's very dangerous, she needed someone to keep an eye on her. I would say better me than anyone, but... That's not true anymore." He felt his own anger bubbling deep within his mind. Anger at himself for killing her. Angry because he would never see her sweet face again. Angry because he let his own emotions cloud his judgment. Again.

Rory wanted to punch him, but he didn't. Instead, he laughed. He laughed venomously. "Oh, so that's it, is it? You took a child from her family, all in the name of trying to keep her safe! Well that's enough, isn't it? That's certainly a good enough excuse for you, Doctor."

"Rory, please stop." The pain in his hearts was threatening to surface as rage. He didn't want to direct it at Rory, only at himself.

"No. Because you don't deserve it!"

"No, you know what, no I don't. It apparently isn't bad enough that I'm wishing myself pain and suffering, you have to toss in your lot too!" The Doctor threw up his hands and turned away, intent on the TARDIS before anything worse happened.

"Oh, don't act like you care!" Rory spat. Amy clutched her husband, rocking back and forth, sobbing so deeply that her whole body shook.

The Doctor turned as fast as he possibly could, glaring daggers into Rory's eyes. "I care more than you could possibly imagine."

"Oh really? Then why didn't you bring her back?"

"Because I love her!" he bellowed. Amy's face shot up to meet his, tears streaking her face.

"What?" Rory almost shuddered. "How dare you look on my daughter like that!"

"That isn't what I mean!" The Doctor threw up his hands again, rage boiling in the synapses of his brain. "Felicity stayed with me. For years. She's all grown up now. Twenty-three." His voice tapered off into quiet sadness.

"Twenty-three?" Amy said, incredulous. "You kept her away from us for nine years?"

"I didn't keep her away at all. I told her that she could come back and visit you whenever she wanted, all she had to do was ask. But she never did. And it isn't because of either of you, I know, for a fact, that she thought you were the most wonderful parents in the whole world. She was just... afraid." He fidgeted with his hands subconsciously.

"And now she's gone," Amy said, eyes accusing. The Doctor forced himself to match her stare, wishing that the pain in his chest would stop. "My little girl is gone and it's all because of you!" She fell into sobs. Rory cried along side her.

He held her for hours, long past the departure of the Doctor. The sky grew dark and cold, shivers ran up their spines, but they stayed. Amy stared at the ground where the TARDIS had been, waiting for the Doctor to return, to tell her that it had all been a lie, to bring back her baby girl.

But he didn't.

* * *

Well, that's it! This story is now complete. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Reviews pretty please?

I have been heavily considering a sequel, so please tell me if you would like me to write one. If so, I will add a teaser after this final chapter, meant as a preview for the next story.


	18. Preview

Okay, here's the promised preview of the sequel, entitled "The Lonely God". Short, but sweet and oh-so confusing. Let me know what you all think!

* * *

"You're _who_?"

She was so very much the same. Every inch of her face was the same. The hair, the eyes, all of it. Her attitude was still very much who he remembered, though she had become slightly more authoritative, if it was possible. That kind of happened when you became the President of an entire species. "I'm the Doctor! I promise, it's me!"

"How dare you! You are not the- ...Oh my god. Doctor... It's really you!" She threw her arms around his neck. The air around them was filled with smog and debris. She held back a cough, peering at the legion in the distance that would soon be upon them. They couldn't see the small troop, hiding in the silver trees with the President in their midst.

The Doctor allowed himself a smile and returned the embrace. "Yes, it's me. I'm me every day in fact."

She let go and looked him over critically. "You just left us- But you look so... Young! When did you regenerate?"

"I've regenerated several times since I saw you last, but that's not quite the problem here."

"Then what is, if I may ask?" the Time Lady replied, putting her hands on her hips.

"The problem is that I'm here and not there," he said, pointing to random places in the air. The noise was in his head. Over and over again. How did _he_ stand it? Oh right; he didn't.

"There? Where is there?" She realized he obviously wasn't talking about the ships flying overhead.

"In my TARDIS. I'm not in my TARDIS; the Master is." He ran his hands through his hair as screaming Daleks flew around them in every direction, the sky crimson blood. "Oh this is extremely very not good at all."


	19. Announcement

This little notice is just to announce that the sequel to this story is up!

It's been up for a while actually, but it didn't occur to me until recently that not everyone would have had notices and things.

If you'll just clicky-click on my name, the title of the sequel is "The Lonely God".


	20. Announcement 2

It's quite disappointing to me that no one seems to be reading the sequel to this story, despite the very high demand for it.

So I will let you all in on a little secret:

In "The Lonely God", Felicity has returned to the Doctor, but she is not who he is expecting.

This chapter is up now, with one more to go. The return of the companion was demanded, so she has returned.

www . fanfiction . net/s/6887811/1/The_Lonely_God


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